Bringing of the Shadows
by Sors
Summary: King Albert approaches his wedding day yet there is trouble growing all around. With three strange figures emerging to the field and old enemies arising can the Dragoons hope to keep their own lives from falling to pieces?(Chapter 14!)
1. On sight for mystery

Complete Disclaimer: All original characters, things, places and idea inside this fic are from the video game Legend of Dragoon, they are copy write their original owners, I do not claim to own them. However I do lay claim to the plot line, so take that and fear my wrath. This applies to every chapter which is written in this story. Thanks, now please get reading! 

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_So careless, you are, of your destiny  
So confused, of what, has come to be  
Your life, your worth, you've given up to me  
Believing, my words, I've become your deity  
  
A hollow shell of what you used to be  
Your lifeform drained of mentality  
Thoughts are ruled by complexity  
As you're numbed, and sink into dormancy_  
Sadus. Swallowed in black.

Minister Noish greeted the King with the usual nod and wave of hand. His eyes looked over and scanned Alulan, who knew that no one within these premises trusted him. Of course not without reason. King Albert had already gone through a great deal, who could say what might set him off now. But that wasn't so much the reason as was the loss of his memories. Although because of it no one really seemed willing to blame him for anything, but they all edged about as if he was part of some great conspiracy to destroy the world.

Thus the one thing he had learned... If they look funny at you, try to look at them with cold and calm gazes and most of them will run.

This was true for about everyone, from knight to maid. But Albert and Noish seemed completely impervious to Alulan's cold stares, as did the man at head of the Knighthoods; Kaiser.

Alulan had no memory of anything before the end of the God of Destruction. He's mind was blank before that, the people who had seen him said that he had been attacked by a great flying monster, its claws had nearly killed him. They said he had been badly hurt in the head for some time afterwards. So a doctor saw it fit to erase his memories, this doctor as he had heard from some scattered rumors was actually the leader of the wingly people... unfitting doctor for a tactician from a human country in his opinion. However many who had said this said that this doctor was indeed a greatly powerful person, and with out her aid he'd have never recovered.

None the less he wished even now that he might have gotten a slight chance to rip and rind that doctor into the ground. He had heard rumors not long after that a man named Dart had_ authorized_ his memory to be erased, along with the memory of two other people...

He remembered one of them taking it lightly and agreeing that it was best. The other hissing her heart out and not once raising her voice. He couldn't clearly remember her name now, it was fuzzy as were a lot of things from those days, and of course before...

A voice from the other side of the room snapped him back to reality. He looked over and saw Noish speaking loudly to the knight called Kaiser. The man was a default, so to speak. It was only by line of fire that he became head of the rather small First-Knighthood, and therefore in charge of the entire Knighthood.

"I don't think it's fit of us to go over there and attempt to force them back to our side, I think the people will come willingly!" Scoured Noish, as Kaiser waved his spear about and yelled back.

"Nonsense! Those people still have great hate of Carlo! And now with three of the Dragoons living here they will be most suspicious!"

"All the more reason to let them do so on their own! Do you want to be in another war?"

"Another war, we have dragoons to back us!" He puffed out his chest. "Who would fight us then?"

However this was where Albert finally stepped in. "What makes you think that either Dart, Raizel or Balder would aid us in our war, I certainly wouldn't." He said this softly, breaking up their fight in a second. "It isn't advised to do so after all."

Kaiser then proceeded to give Alulan a glowering look. "Of course it's not advised!!" And with that the knight moved from the room yelling orders to the men around him.

_That's right... I did tell Albert not to try and force anything on the people in Sandora._

Albert moved to his seat at the head of the table, on this day his wife to be, would be arriving from Fletz. Her name was Emille, said to be the fairest and sweetest of all the ladies. It was said that she had golden hair the color of the sun light, and her skin was as white and soft as snow. However something tragic had happened to the queen to be, she had been used in some sort of conspiracy to aid bandits. A woman of identical beauty had taken her place, and it wasn't till Albert and his little dragoons arrived to save the day that the truth was revealed.

"I'm most sorry to have spoken to him again, I know you have asked me not to." Noish replied apologetically to Albert.

"No it's fine." Albert replied with a tired sigh, before waving someone over. "I want you to message Dart, tell him that we found what we we're looking for. Oh and have my library at least together enough for some writing."

"Of course my Lord." The messenger answered before traveling swiftly on his way.

Dart was one of the great Dragoons from the months past. It was known that he lived a married life now in a small village. In many ways reflecting typical great men. However in Alulan's opinion he was rather meager, ungrateful and stupid. He could only just read and write, he never considered himself to be fortunate for his great wealth, and not once did he attempt to make himself into the hero he was. Once again power was wasted on the stupid...

"Alulan I would like it if you would go down to greet the emissaries for Emille, there is no need to be diplomatic about it, however do not speak to the Royalty." Albert commanded.

So Alulan obeyed and headed down the steps to front of the castle. There he could see the small triad of people accompanying Emille for her wedding. Some of them would be staying with her here, others like her father would be traveling back.

Alulan meet them with the customary greeting and attempted to be cheerful about the event that would soon take place. Yet he found himself thinking that the princess would surely run off and hide out with some villager; especially since Albert was suffering from lack of sleep. The man's normally nice hair was getting overly knotty. He had circles under his eyes that looked like someone had attacked him with ink, and Alulan was sure that the guy was developing wrinkles. He stopped his thoughts as the Princess' carriage stopped at the steps of the castle.

He watched as the Princess stepped out of her carriage and walked slowly up the steps with amazing grace. She was pretty he thought, and then he thought something he hadn't rightly expected. He thought that he wanted to slice her neck, and throw her in some cave where no one would find her. However the thought passed in a moment, even if it reminded him of another thought like that one.

With it's passing he turned back to one of the Nobles who had come along to attend the festivities. The man smiled happily at him, chattering to him about how wonderful it would be to have a real wedding between two people so deeply in loves as Albert and Emille.

Alulan wondered if that could ever really happen in Royalty.

....

A/N: I was looking through this baby name thing (no I'm not pregnant) and saw the name Alula, it means winged one in Welsh. Thus Alulan! . So any guesses to what going on? And don't worry next chappie shall be MUCH longer!

Ideas, thoughts, guesses? That's what the review box is for!


	2. Arival of the night

**Bringing of the Shadows**

Why does it feel like this world is just not for us  
Why does it feel like this world's all they've got for us  
Why does it feel like nobody's watching us

Theory Of A Deadman. The Last Song

The evening slowly approached, maids and maidens running about preparing food and decor alike. The knights stationed at their posts gave short smiles to all, and didn't even notice when one went by with a knife in hand. Alulan remembered that on his way to his own room in the west wing of the building he must have been tripped, bumped into and stumbled upon by at least half a dozen people.

It a hard thing to do, hold a celebration so near to the fall festival. The goods are high priced, and everyone is already working on other projects. Alulan thought that the wedding should have been held after the festival. However that sort of thing wasn't his job, it wasn't his place to decide when Albert should hold his wedding. Although it was strange to have an advisor such as himself with such a great comon sense go to waste.

But Alulan was a war advisor, and a battle commander, and a tactics keeper. He most certainly wasn't a party planer. Yet this in some ways quite depressing. For in Serdio there were no battles to be fought, no wars to win like a few months ago. Now was a time of peace, and a time for rebirth of the land and it's people. It was times like these that he wished him might be able to act softer towards the people around him. Alulan was the outcast, outcastes are not to appease the people surrounding them. He didn't know why, or what he had done. But the people here did not include their tactician in their party plans. People in this place, and in just about every place he had ever been treated him as an outcast. So it was that he out casted them too.

Another young blond haired maid went dashing by in front of his feet, her hair was braided down in a fashion to her side. It struck something in him, even if only for a moment.

"Excuse me Sir!" Her voice was loud and harsh, and it knocked the feeling away.

"Of course." He replied attempting to sound as unemotional as possible. He noticed this helped with peoples fear and hate of him.

She noted curtly and when scurrying off to some other place in the castle.

He watched for a moment, wondering breifly if he really needed to be so cold? Only around Albert and a few of the knights who had taken a liking to him did he feel that this hate wasn't needed... But to all others it was maditory, although he didn't know quite why.

Now he headed for the main chamber to meet the King and accompany him down to the dinning room. He was going to have to put up with Kaiser all night long, however it was a little sacrifice to make for keeping him and Noish separate. Alulan came to the main chamber and greeted Albert who was already speaking with King Zior. The King of Feltz gave him a rather nasty look, before Albert stepped in between their line of sight and announced that they would be going to the dinning hall.

Alulan followed behind Albert a little bit off to the left.. Across from him was Noish and behind him Kaiser. He could feel the hate rising from those two, almost like one could feel electricy in the air.

As the group entered Alulan saw that Emille already sat at the other end of the table from where Albert sat, next to her would be her father and sister. She flashed a smile at Albert, and Alulan got the feeling that there would be no problem in their marriage no matter how lost the King seemed to be.

"King Albert the Lady Emille." Noish pronounced, and the lot of them took their seats.

The meal was good, however the company was not. Kaiser couldn't have hissed more vulgar things about Noish into Alulan's ear. Albert was obsessed with chatting to anyone but the people who actually sat next to him. Which left Alulan stuck listening to Kaiser's ideas about killing Nosh, or his ever constant issue of forcing the other half of Serdio to come under Albert's rule.

"Why does it matter?" Alulan asked with a tired sigh, slipping more and more wine down.

"Heh! I thought you'd be the last to disagree. Have you seen my men, they stand about like a bunch of layabouts. Nothing like how it was under Lavits." He said the man's name quitely, almost as if it wasn't to be said. "Besides I'm sure you'd like to plot out wars again!"

Albert rose from his seat as one of the final people moved away from him. "I'd like to propose a toast before our deserts arrive." There was a great clatter as half drunk people rushed for their mugs. "First I must tell you that all of my fellow Dragoons will be attending the celebration, they are all due to arrive tomorrow!" There was a resounding applause. "My toast however is to the future wealth of Tiberona and Serdio!" And with this the mugs went flying into each other.

Albert took his seat again, and Kaiser spoke into Alulan's ear. "Good thing the old twit didn't put any of his crap into it!" From across the table Alulan could hear Noish saying something quite similar about Kaiser. He smirked, and patted Kaiser on the back, "of course!"

It wasn't long after that moment that he left. The feast had grown tiring and there was no one of any interest to speak too. He might have wanted to talk to Emille if only for a few minutes, but things like that where not done in Royal families.

_I wonder what my family is like...._

He took long strides to the upper floors of the castle, finally coming to the balconies. He liked it here, high above everything. It made him feel at home some how.

_Wonder if my family lived near a cliff..._

He lifted himself up onto the edge, unlike everyone else he knew he could do something like this and not worry about falling. Not that he could actually save himself if he did fall... It wasn't completely true however, Albert a dragoon wouldn't have to worry about falling. Dragoon armor has wings in it, yet the man still had his own uneasy issues with heighs.

_All the dragoons are coming for his wedding... Maybe I could speak to this Dart and ask him what he thinks he's doing erasing my memory like that. _Alulan rested his face into his hands and sat there almost unaware of the somewhat strong wind which was narrowly rocking his body back and forth.His sensitive hearing picked up some footsteps coming up the stairs. He couldn't really feel who it was, maybe a maid or a guest from the party come to look at he scenery of Bale. He moved his legs back over the edge and looked inside to see who it was that had come upstairs.

_With my luck it will be a robber. _

A fragile girl steeped out from the other doorway onto the balcony. She nodded her head at him and gave him a short smile. "Your the tactician for Albert correct?"

"I am, your of course Princess Lisa." He dismounted his post on the edge of the balcony and bowed to the young woman.

"Indeed." She gave him another polite nod before moving over to the edge of the balcony. "I came here so I might look at the stars. My sister asked that I watch her future closely."

"You can read the signs in the stars then?"

"I can, would you like me to look into your future." She asked with a bright smile, and yet when she had first seen him she has seemed so unhappy to have run across his parth.

He looked up at the stars towering above. "I'd much rather have you look into my past since it has left me, however if you can not I will take you up on that offer."

"Yes, I can not look into the past, however I will look into your future, if I may for a moment..." She turned to the stars and looked up into the sky her hands hovered next to each other and a light slowly came between them. It wasn't a bright light, however it was astonishing to see it.

Slowly the light faded out and she turned to look back at him. "Your future is far more clouded that most. However I'm well skilled." She paused for a moment to collect her thoughts. "I see you facing great amounts of opposition. Not only from your enemies, but also from your friends. I see three other people joining you, and then slowly more... Your star is very bright, and two of those people have stars which are just as bright. Perhaps your equals?" She looked back up at the stars frowning. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much more, reading the stars is very difficult even with all this time... Yet I think you are stronger than your opposition, and your allies are those who will not fail you." She looked over at him. "Does that give you any guidance?"

"Can you tell me if I will ever remember?"

"I'm afraid that I can't, for that is outside my own control... However if you've forgotten then maybe there is a reason. I think that nothing is done with out reason, not even the creation of the god of destruction."

He looked over at her and nodded relishing that maybe she would give him more insight to what had happened before his memory loss. "What do you mean by that?"

"With out Melbu Frama's plan the Dragoons would never have been called forth. They might have led less of a life than that which they do. The God led too many good and bad things happening in our world... Fester my teacher tells me that without the sour the sweet isn't as good."

Alulan nodded, "It's good logic."

"I think so too, if you don't mind however I need to look for my sister before it grows to late."

"Of course, and good night milady." He gave her a quick bow and turned away to go back to his own room.

A/N: Good chappie? I like the bit with Lisa, the star seem like it was lacking it chit chat. But I really couldn't find a place to put it in.

Random note- Lisa is cool, and Alulan is loved!

By the way someone fig out who Alulan is, not that hard is it? Anyway now for all you smert people, who might Raizel and Balder be.... Hm let us think XD!


	3. Killing time on the road

**Bringing of the Shadows**

  


The battle for the past is for the future  
Must be the winners of the memory war  
Smash reach out and then grab the flower  
At the end of the day their defeat will be for sure.  


Asian Dub Foundation. Memory War

He rolled his arms up behind his back, looking to the clear morning sky as he did so. He had never in his memory seen a sky so blue. Not a cloud or smudge on the horizon. Not far off to his right the ever cautious Raizel sighed and started up a little speech about how they would all burn to death with out any clouds. Shana laughed and nodded along with her, and they both started in on giggling.

Balder looked down at the younger man Dart who had been taking care of both him and Raizel since their loss in memory. Dart had often mentioned to him that he had not changed much from the loss, however Raizel's entire personality had flipped. All he knew was that he felt something for the black haired beauty which both drove him up a wall into the deepest pit.

"How are we ladies going to keep white with all this sunlight? Hmpf, I think we'd have been better off traveling with some caravan than these men." Raizel said rolling her own eyes lightly to make fun of herself.

"Well maybe we could get these wonderful men types to build a little shelter, and have them carry us on it?" Shana said giggling along looking over at Dart while he glared.

"Oh but it would take them forever just to finish it!"

"Would you two quit it! We're going through the caves today anyway!" Dart growled at them, leaving them giggling again.

Balder shrugged his shoulders at Dart and moved off to get his things together, he could hear Raizel talking about how one should brush their hair and wash their face every morning. Shana was agreeing with her and Balder suspected that they we're making faces at Dart also.

"Just get something for us to eat, please..." He requested at last.

"Why of course!" Raizel said as if jumping right to the task.

Balder came back to sit with them, having all of his things together and himself relatively well cleaned, as clean as you can get on the road.

Before their little travel to Bale Balder had only seen Raizel around one or twice in the small town. He himself lived in his own small place near Dart and Shana's home, across from the church. Raizel had lived on the other side of town with a single woman who's husband had been killed when Seles was attacked in the last year or so.

He knew quite well that she was also a dragoon, same as himself and Dart. She carried the darkness spirit, and he had been trained in how to use it with her for a few weeks quite some time ago. However she had worked more with Shana who had once been a dragoon, while he worked with Dart. He was the owner of the fire spirit. It was a spirit that Dart had carried prior to the fight on the fallen moon when he had acquired the divine one.

At some point around the time during the moon both he and Raizel had lost their memories. Neither Shana nor Dart would give them any idea as to what had happened. Shana seemed pained by it, while Dart was plain stubborn. Once when he had pushed the subject Dart had sat down, and for a moment he seemed like he might just tell Balder something. However the man started laughing and just couldn't stop.

Thus Balder gave up the fight for his memories, and headed for his future.

The group moved steadily north through out the day. Around noon they came to entrance of the caves. Dart smirked before entering as if recalling some memory. The caves where dark and both himself and Dart were forced to take out their spirits to see.

"To bad that Raizel's doesn't help." Shana said.

"To bad Shana doesn't have one." Raizel said back.

"Girls..." Dart muttered.

"Dart... It wasn't this dark last time." Shana said.

"I know."

"How is that even possible?" Balder asked them.

"Maybe there are clouds on the outside." He remarked not really giving thought to his answer.

"Dart... It didn't look like a rainy day to me." Raizel pointed out.

"Then maybe it's cause your with us." He quarreled back.

Balder shrugged his shoulders, and the group pressed forward undaunted. As the time pasted in the cravens below it seemed to grow darker and darker. The path once clear became a twisted set of lines, which made even Raizel start to worry.

"Dart, this isn't right." Shana whispered as the group sat down for a break. "It was clear as hell, and it's smothering us in here... It feels like..."

"I know." He interrupted, "but as much as I dislike this I haven't seen him yet. I can't sense his magic, and I should feel it. Neither can you or the other two. He might have left something in here, but I doubt it's really him."

"Your right... I feel him though, it's his doing. Maybe he's figured it out?"

"Shana..." Dart shook his head and looked over at Balder who was standing looking about as if trying to discover something with his spirit.

"Sorry." She looked around spotting Raizel leaned up against a rock almost out of view. "It's hard some times you know."

"I know." He looked over at Raizel, was it just him or was she moving farther away from them?

"We should try to keep moving." Shana stated, and he nodded.

"Balder! Come on we're going to press on." He said over to the blond haired man in red body armor.

"DART!" Shana's hand gripped his arm with deadly precision. However it wasn't her who had yelled.

Farther down the tunnel where Raizel had stood a pair of green eyes blinked out at them. Within seconds his sword was out, Balder not far behind. Shana hitched an arrow to her bow and waited for Dart and Balder to strike.

As Dart approached he could see with frightening distinction that Raizel's mouth was covered with a claw like hand. Behind her blending with the darkness a pair of green eyes. He brought his sword up and then pulled a surprise attack, sliding on the wet floor behind the being. A second later the sword was impaling the creature through the back. It hissed and screamed, and a light mist lifted off of it's back. Balder swung his sword at the hand holding Raizel's mouth closed, and then as it came free from it's arm pulled her away.

Dart slugged his own weapon at full force through the beast's center, while Shana let loose the arrow at it's head. It squealed and hissed, then crumpled to the floor.

And all at once the darkness lifted.

"Shit!" Dart growled, he looked over at both Raizel and Balder. It was an intense cold stare, however within seconds he turned away and headed at run up towards Shana.

"She's fine. It was him... Damit! I only felt it when she yelled!" Quickly he thrust his sword against a piece of cloth to clean it.

"He didn't get in them did he, your alright aren't you?. Oh god." Shan said pulling out another arrow.

"No, I'm fine Shana, he didn't have enough time."

Balder and Raizel where only seconds behind. "What the hell is with you, I'm not the monster!!" Raizel yelled indignantly at him. "Why'd you look at me like that!?"

Dart stared over at the black haired woman, obviously taking her complaint to heart this time. He frowned and started to speak when Shana spoke for him. "Raizel really he was just making sure you where ok!" Shana said back sweetly, with only a tinge of desperation in her voice.

"What the hell was that thing!? I saw something come right out of it's back and then you go all freaked. What is going on?!" Balder yelled at him.

"Just a very potent monster." Dart said easily. "Come on we've lost a lot of time."

Raizel shook her head dazed, yet followed behind him obediently. Balder's eyes gazed behind them at once had been darkness, the room seemed far less eerie. However a chill ran down his back, he turned away and hurried after. Fear, hate, and some emotions he wasn't even sure he understood ran like ice through his blood.

A/N: YAY! I got the centering to work! XD html drives me mad!!

In any case I updated at record speed for me. Mostly because for the first time ever, I HAVE A STORY OUTLINE! Yippy day!

Oh you wonder why I do? Stupid yet smart LA teacher is making us do them, so... Tada! In any case if any of you would like to see what the layout looks like, I could put it at the bottom of that chapter, it could be like the chapter summary. .; Have to take out the little hints about the plot tho.


	4. Storys at the table

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_And here we go again  
We've taken it to the end  
With every waking moment  
We face this silent torment._  
Sacrifice. London After Midnight.

Miranda steeped gracefully through the door, she moved to dust some of the dirt off of her clothing, then looked up and smiled at Albert. "Nice to be here, but think we can have some place to crash?" Miranda asked with a smile. "Um... Sure.... It's nice to see you Miranda." Albert looked over to watch as Haschel and Kongol enter through the large doors. "I see you all made it then."

"Of course!" Haschel boasted. 

Kongol gave a simple nod of the head, and Albert quickly walked around to them. "Alright well I've already got rooms for you, Dart and Meru's groups haven't showed up yet however I think they should be here by today or tomorrow." 

"That's good Albert but really don't you have..." 

"Emille is already here you should go see her after you get cleaned up!" Albert said carrying on not realizing that he was still a king. 

From the side of the thrown room Noish and Alulan watched as their King when off showing the Dragoons about as if he was a commoner. "Well he was their friend." Noish said with a shrug, before following after them.

Alulan watched as the small group walked off, he sighed and went back to leafing through a book of inventories from that week. The total where skimming on breaking some of the countries bank accounts. _Does anyone realize that we just went through a war and that we're extremely low on cash? Or am I the only cleared head in this place? _The irony of his own words struck him a little hard. He smiled to himself thinking about how strange it was to see Albert just go dashing off. 

He looked back down at the book and sighed. The feeling that he knew them, much the same as with Emille had come when he had seen them. It was far more intense however. It was more than a brief second concluding that he had great wishes to kill them. But this time he felt wonder and aw, he was thankful... And at the same time he felt relief. 

He shook his head, he didn't have time to consider things anymore. He'd had move on past or no past. Things from that age were over, and since he was being well cared for, there was no need to worry. 

He had already forgotten, now all he had to do was move on. 

Dinner came when and young servant with dark red hair rushed over to him. "Mr. Alulan, I can to tell you that Albert wants every one down in the Main Hall for dinner tonight. He'd like it if you attend."

"Alright." Alulan said to the man standing straight from his lean on the wall. He when on his own to the dinning area. Already the dragoons and Noish where sitting drinking and waiting for food from the kitchens. The three dragoons all looked up and eyed him when he walked in. It was almost eerie in a way to have all of them looking at him. However he paid little attention to them and took his customary seat next to Albert's left. 

"This is Alulan my tactician." Albert said to the three of them, "And coming through the door is Kaiser, he's the new head of the First Knighthood since... The war." 

"Hello." Kaiser said taking a seat next to Albert's right. 

"This is Miranda First Sacred Sister of Mille Seseau, Haschel Master of the Rouge School, and Kongol last of the Gigantos." Albert said as the servants started to carry the meals in. 

Alulan made a point not to get involved in any conversation. However he did pay good attention to what the dragoons spoke of, whether they knew it or not, he did have very good hearing. 

"I see he sits at your left Albert, your treating him like a friend..." Miranda had hissed over at him. 

"He doesn't remember anything, beside he's quit loyal. He's a different person than you knew Miranda. I knew him before and after." Albert had said back when he passed her some wine. 

"I say we should have locked him up in Ulara." Miranda vouched. 

"I'd rather have him where I can watch him Miranda, Dart agrees with me on this. So don't bother talking about it now." 

Later on he heard Kaiser talking to Miranda just below the normal conversations. "Lavits was a good friend to us all, and if you think for a second that we'd forget him your wrong. However the man is loyal, he doesn't even bother to ask questions about the moon incident. Most of all he's smart, and I'd much rather have him by my side if the rumors I've heard are true." 

"He doesn't ask questions because Charle knocked him and the other two up with a spell of some sort. It keeps them for asking questions." 

"Oh really? Well then he should be fine shouldn't he, she's the most powerful wingly since you people killed that guy up at some tower place. Right?" Kaiser asked giving her a smile. 

"Technically she is, however... When her brother shows up on the scope again, I can't guarantee anything, not about him or the other two." 

"Oh." Kaiser shook his head and then looked down the table at some potatoes. "Mine passing them, oh fair and kind lady?" 

"Shove it you moron." Miranda hissed at him before reaching for the potatoes and putting half of them on her own plate. 

Alulan looked over at Noish who sat next to him, the man was engrossed with some man called Fester from Tiberona. He was the tutor to Lisa, so there was no doubt that the man was smart. Carefully he listened into the conversation. 

"Ah yes it was quite an amazing discovery. I never really understood how it was that all people saw the Moon in the same spot. However it just proves how powerful the god of destruction is..." Fester said.

"It's an amazing thing. To think that the moon was projected into all of our minds. How did you come to realize such things?" Noish asked him.

"Well when the Dragoon Meru came to visit Emille last month she talked with me about how the city of Ulara had a projected sky. However everyone could still see the moon there, even though it wasn't part of the created sky. So you see, it's only possibility is if the moon was placed into our minds." 

"An amazing feat for the monster, or Soa. I can understand how the dragoons where cured from the death of the creature." Noish shook his head and looked over at Alulan. "You agree don't you." 

"Yes. But I've heard that some Winglies are quite powerful at blocking things from reaching their minds. So how is it that they too see the moon?"

"Hm... I might have to ask one of them. Perhaps the gods power was go great. Or maybe they saw no point in blocking it?" Fester replied. 

"It would make since... You should speak to one of them." Alulan replied noticing a look pass between Noish and Fester. 

"I will someday. I haven't had a chance to do so as of yet." Fester replied. 

Alulan leaned back in his chair and listening to the conversation passing between Haschel and King Zior. They talked about the current trading system between the Islands and the main land. 

"Now that the Dragon is gone, thanks to all of you of course, we haven't lost one ship." Zior stated proudly. 

The night wore on with the same simple talk that passed, and there wasn't anything else said about him. So as the last of the food vanished he headed up to his own room, long the way he thought he heard a little yep, however as he turned he saw no one standing there. 

Alulan kicked off his shoes and then took a seat at his table. The room was mildly warm, and the night sky above him was crowed. 

In quick notes in a form of code he had thought up he wrote down the short amount of things said about him. He puzzled over it. The Dragoons had affirmed his suspicions, he had been around them before the lose of his memory. Miranda's tone and looks had also made him certain that he had been an enemy to them.

_Of all that time before all I know for certain is that I had been Albert's Tactician for about a year before the actual war started... Some time in the war I went against the dragoons, and now that the war is over, rather than deal with me as a foe, they get some wingly friend to erase my memory and stick me right back where I was on their side. Not only that but they have the wingly cast some spell so that I wont wonder about my memory loss. _

He stared and smiled. _But then again I'm wondering right now, maybe hearing about he spell is enough to break it._ Alulan shook his head and folder the paper up into to a hallow leg in his chair which had once contained a pair of extremely expensive earrings which he now had hidden under a book on his shelf. 

He carefully blew out his candle and moved easily in the darkness to his bed. 

Somewhere in a tower not to far from Alulan's room Albert was sitting down to his own table, far more furnished, and pulling out a writing pair, ink and quill. 

He stared in a leather bound book with off white pages. He scrolled out and few words looked down and then by candle and Spirit light he started to write. 

**The energy that we have estimated was contained in the moon itself is far more than all of our spirits placed together. Although we where able to defeat the god, he was still young, thus he had not completely gained all of the magic stored in the moon. it was only after the most powerful attack and sacrifice of both our fellow Dragoons Rose and Zieg that me managed to overcome the god. **

** This energy however took healing form once the god was destroyed. Myself and the other dragoons received an enormous amount of backwash from the explosion. This alone was able to heal us completely. However it also made us stronger. Most of the energy is within our spirits which where able to absorb more than ourselves. However the energy given to us has thus far proved quite valuable. Unknown to most of my follow people, I no longer need the spirit to cast magic. Like a wingly I can cast any spell I have seen before myself. Also I have found that I have both improved hearing, eyesight and smell. I can sense where the other dragoons at all times. **

** All of us dragoons have such been gifted. Charle herself noted that the energy has made us into weak forms of Winglies, with out changing our appearance. Where this has also had an effect on our lifespans is also to be seen. **

** Meru is no longer a weak Wingly in terms of power, she now rivals Charle ****herself. This amazing gain is because she is a Wingly. She was able to absorb far more energy, and seems to be able to "gift" it out to other winglies. As she found with her current fiancée Guaraha...**

Albert continued to scroll down page after page with notes and takes about the energy. Till finally the candle flickered out and he leaned back away from his book. He shook his head and look out his window simply staring and thinking. Till his eyes closed and he fell asleep. 

A/N: It's time for.... Answer some questions!   
Darkside: The monster was a Succubus, one of the things you encounter in Velweb. Sorry about the furby thing too... ^.^;   
Reasa: Yep your right about it, but as to the stuff in the Email... ^.^; Girl where are you getting your drugs?   
Fifi: to get the centering thing you have to use the STUPID center and / center tags. XD It's so gay.


	5. Friends and Foes

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_What this seems to be, what this seems to be, is real  
All of my life is changing  
You're the enemy, you're the enemy, i fear  
All of my life is changing, always some rearranging  
So much is lost, so much disharmony  
So much is lost, no voice of sympathy  
My identity, my identity, is not real  
All of my life is changing  
All of my lies you're facing_  
Paradise Lost. So Much Is Lost.

Dart moved through the open gates of Bale. He noted that a few people looked his way, some even nodded at him as if they knew who he was. Maybe they did, it was hard to say how far his face was known... Surely they had heard tales, stories maybe, about a man in red armor.

Dart ran a hand through his hair. He wasn't ready to be a hero again, not for these people... Maybe he never would be. But he'd be the one, just like the rest of them, trapped in a circle of death and pain. It wasn't his job to feel guilt for killing his enemies. It wasn't his job to question. But it was to murder, and to hand out answers. 

Then gain... He just thought to much about things that may never come to be in the first place. 

Shana trotted lightly behind him pointing out some random places to Raizel and Balder. She neatly left out Lavits' house, and instead talked about the man who they meet when they when leaving the town. He was the one who asked them to help for stardust. 

_Great pain that was too... _Shana thought in her head, even though the items where very powerful.

Finally they rounded a corner and where set straight on the path to the castle. They walked up the stairs and at the top Dart stopped for a moment to speak to the guards who quickly bowed to him. 

"Right this way sir!" A man in dark colored fabric said, before leading them into the heart of the well lit castle. 

Dart nodded waving at the others to follow him into the building. Raizel followed looking about, she couldn't shake the strange feeling that people were giving her odd looks. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had been here before too. 

But she hadn't been outside of Seles more than once or twice has she? She hadn't left that small town in the longest time... Maybe she had gone out side of it once. Wasn't that what Dart had told her?

She moved about the stairway cautiously. She had been here at one point or another. It hadn't been to long ago either. She caught a stray glance from the man in dark clothes and golden armor. She felt a slight sense of pity and repulsion at him. Then she noticed that they were walking up more steps, careful not to trip she lightly moved up them. 

Balder looked about the thrown room in modest surprise. He hadn't really expected the place to be so unfurnished. Sure it had wonderful motifs on the railing and the carpets was the best, however it really was lacking in anywhere to sit. 

Maybe he had been expecting something more like a living room... Then a dark figure near the back of the room caught his glance. The man had silver hair, and almost red looking eyes... Maybe they really where red. However it was unnerving what he felt, in his mind he could hear someone else's voice, but the words were to far away to hear. 

Quickly he shook his head, noticing that the stranger was giving him a strange look to. Before shaking his own head...

This all passed with seconds for who came to the scene but the King himself. And with him a hole new set of emotions.

Albert smiled for once in a very long time. His eyes flickering back and forth between the people there. "Dart! It's good to finally see you here! Meru hasn't arrived yet, but Miranda and the others are already here. They're resting right now though." 

"That's good... It's been a long time, we have some catching up to do I think. If you can get everyone's rooms together I'd like a moment to speak with you." 

Albert took the slight hint there. "Of course. Your rooms are already placed together. I'll have the maids show you where. Dart if you want to come over here." Albert said waving him up to a door on the right side of the room. 

Dart followed patiently. As he reached the top of the steps he paused only for a second to look across at the cold and ever calculating tactician. His eyes couldn't help but narrow at the man before Albert pulled him into the room. 

Shutting the door behind him Albert turned on Dart, holding a finger to his lips. He opened another part of the room out into the balcony to his own room. "We can talk out here." 

"I wasn't expecting to see him so suddenly that's all." Dart said noticing the more than disapproving look. 

"I know, I know... But Miranda, Haschel, even Kongol have been glaring daggers at him. I know for a fact that he is getting suspicious of what is going on. I'm not sure if the spell is wearing off, or if he's simply to powerful now to be tricked like that. You remember what Charlie told us, she can't tap that much power off of them, unless they are within Ulara. I think he's just growing to powerful to be held in by the magic she placed on him." 

"I've noticed it with Raizel and Balder also." Dart stated. "However I have something far more important to speak with you about." 

"I don't want to know about it."

"I'm afraid that you must Albert... Because before you are a King you are a Dragoon."

"One of those great sayings, hm?"

"Melbu Frama appeared and when after Raizel while we were in the caves." 

Albert's head hung. "I should have guessed that it would be soon." 

"I should have too. He was in the body of a Succubus, and he was powerful enough to have darkened the entire caves." 

"Have you sent word to Charle yet?" Albert asked apprehensively. 

"I did with my spirit. She has yet to speak to me back... "

"I'm not surprised, she is undoubtedly working on point out his location. However this couldn't have come at a worse time. I'm going to be having a wedding, and all of you are here..."

"Leaving the rest of the world completely unprotected... I'm thinking about telling Meru to stay in Ulara after this. I know she'll hate me for it, but it would be comforting to have one of us there." Dart responded running an uneasy hand through his hair. 

"She'll understand... Because before we are living we are Dragoons..." Albert said, before casting his eyes out at his country. 

Alulan stalked off in as dire a mood as ever. The way the man Dart had glared daggers at him when he came up the steps, not to mention the other three. They all just stared a glared. Of course when he had seen them he had felt emotions springing up, all far to random for him to comprehend. None of them direct like the one he felt when he had seen Emille. 

_Why... because I saw all of these people at once? _

He shook his head not look ahead of him, but a the ground. It was then that he bumped into one of the people from Dart's party. The blond man... 

"Excuse me." He muttered before starting to walk off. 

"Hey! Wait a second do I know you?" He asked. 

Alulan twirled around to greet the stranger. "I'm afraid I wouldn't know, but if you recognize me..." 

"Um... No not exactly, you see when I see people I know from before I lost my memory I often get a flash of some reorganization... I was hoping you could tell me who you are, or where we met." 

Alulan tilted his head slightly. "That's rather odd, because I seem to have lost my memory also... About three months ago to be exact." 

"Three months ago... At the end of the Moon war?" 

"Yes... Your one of the other two who were there aren't you?" Alulan asked carefully. 

"Other two... I think I was, it very hazy... But I do know that Raizel also lost her memory around the same time! What a coincidence to meet you here!" The man said far to loudly for Alulan's tastes. 

"Keep it down will you. The Dragoons are already suspicious of me I think, knowing about their little quick fix to things. Why don't you come out to the tavern with me, I doubt that we'll get heard there." \ 

"Alright, I'm Balder. Or at least that's the name I was told. How about you?" 

"Alulan." He said heading back around the side and down a small hidden stairwell. Balder followed behind intrigued by the strange happenings. 

They reached the tavern in only a few minutes. Being still rather early in the day there was few customers. All the better for the two of them. 

"Where should we start?" Balder asked. 

"Hm... What have you been told about the incident surrounding your memory loss?" Alulan queried waving over a maid to get them drinks. 

"I was told that I lost my memory due to the Moon War... They said I hit my head or something stupid like that, called it amnesia. I was told that I was a relative to Dart, that's why we look alike, and are both Dragoons. He spent some time training me to be a dragoon. However that was far to easy, so I think I must have done it before. Shana and him talk about me, and then they will often start talking about him... I'm not sure who he is, however I think that I was associated to him, like an ally. He is their enemy apparently, which I think must be the reason for my loss of memory." He paused and reached for the pint of beer which had come his way. "Your turn." 

"Very similar... I was told by Albert that I lost my memory after being attacked by some sort of creature called a Virage. He said that it was dying, however I was it by a magic ray from the thing and was forced into near death by it. He claims that's how I got a rather strange scar on my chest, I don't believe it one bit cause it when all the way through, and should have killed me." Alulan paused talking a sip. "I've heard in the past few days that a wingly named Charle erased my memory. Apparently she also placed some sort of spell on us to keep us from questioning our memory loss. It seemed to have been working well until a little over a week ago." 

"If Charle erased your memory, and I remember you being there... She must have did the same thing to myself and Raizel." He answered, looking about the room again as if suspicious of something. 

"I've also heard that Dart was the one to give the order to erase my memory...." Alulan mentioned. 

"What?!" 

"I heard it when Albert was speaking to someone, apparently Dart is directly involved with Charle, or something like that. He helped out with a family dispute, and Charle does him the Favor of wiping his enemies clean." Alulan nodded and leaned back watching Balder's reaction. 

"... It would make sense... Shana certainly didn't like me at first, and with this whole Him thing popping up... Maybe we were their enemies, it would make sense that they would try to keep us quite, especially if something terrible happened." 

"Like what?" 

"Oh I don't know... End of the world, sacrificial things. Something vile, something a groups of famous hero's just wouldn't want you to hear about." 

"Ha! I bet they accidentally killed someone, and they don't want us to go telling everyone who it is!" 

However Balder's eyes had focused on something outside the window. Alulan turned and a strong sense of betrayal hit him. Outside was a young girl, dressed up in a extremely skimpy blue dress pranced by, leading a man who also had silver hair by. 

"You feel it too." Balder stated. 

"Betrayal... What did you feel?" Alulan asked him turning back. 

"Joy, and annoyance." 

"Strange...." Alulan stated. "It's times like these where I think it's better to get drunk." 

"I whole heartily agree!" Balder said with a smile. 

A/N: Sorry I know I really should get around to writing on my other fics... Like my two ff9 ones and A Tale of Two Winglies... Or maybe finish Baon since it only has one chapter left. XD But know know! Frick it! BWAHAHAA! Okay I promise that the next thing I put up will be another chapter on one of those, maybe Demon Squirrels II! 


	6. Passing on a Wink

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_Did you ever care about what I said  
Did it ever matter  
But then, you think about it again  
And it changes in the end  
  
Did you ever hear what I said  
Does it even matter  
And if we were all the same  
Would your dreams be shattered_  
  
Violent delight. Shattered.

Balder had stayed in the tavern for almost another hour after Alulan had left. Alulan had said that it would be best no to be seen together by any of the dragoons, after all suspicions of him were high. They might also be suspicious of himself and Raizel...

He moved up the steps of the castle, with any luck he might be able to speak with Raizel before she drifted off to sleep tonight. 

"Hello Sir." One of the knights greeted as he enter the castle. 

"Good evening." He responded before going through the main doorway, and then up the carpeted steps. Off to the left was where most of the guest rooms were. Including those of the Dragoons. Fourth door down on the right was Raizel's if he remembered. It was oak and nicely carved, he knocked twice, lightly in cases she was asleep. 

"Yes?" Came the slippery light voice of Raizel.

"It's Balder... Can I talk with you for a little bit?" he asked. 

The door parted a little way. "What about?"

"Our memory.... It's hard to explain out here..." he was half afraid that she'd go running off and yell at Shana about him trying to get into her room.

"Did you see the tactician King Albert had?" She asked as if understanding what he was thinking. 

"I did, spoke with him too... I think we've discovered some things." 

He could see her thinking.... And then, "If you try anything I swear I'll put your head on a platter."

And so he began to explain to her, what exactly he had discovered. 

"Balder... I do have something to confess to you. And please don't take this the wrong way..." She rolled her eyes like a young girl would. "When I first saw you I felt something, kind of like how... Well I'm fairly sure I had an emotional attachment to you." She stated simply. 

"Yeah... I think I felt something too. But how will we ever know?" He asked.

"We could ask Shana! She'll let anything slip! You'd be amazed at some of the things I found out. Like this stuff about someone hunting us, she did it in a way to warn me, but I saw right through that! One of the dragoons must really hate us three, so we should watch our back." 

"Dart really gave Alulan a dirty look," Balder stated.

"Miranda glared at me half the dinner, she's the Light Dragoon... So you know it could be the opposite thing, but me and Shana get along."

"The Giganto is the last of his kind, it might have something to do with that!" Balder announced suddenly realizing they were getting off the topic. "What about Shana?"

"Oh... I'll ask her tomorrow at luncheon." 

"Alright, well I'll see you later then," He said with a slight wave before heading out of the room. 

Raizel greeted Shana as usual that day, talking a little bit about the petty things, yet feeling a sort of freeing high purpose. 

"So Shana..." She said as they sat down in the warmly lit garden behind the castle. "Can I ask you something?" 

"I don't know why not." Shana spoke munching lightly into her sandwich. 

"I.. Well I was thinking... Balder you know, he's kind of familiar to me, in a weird sort of way." She rolled her hand around as if she was nervous. "Is there any chance that, I was _with _him?" 

Shana looked over at her as if completely surprised. "Well... you did... You were kinda together but it was a really long time ago, I don't think he really, or anything like that. I'm sorry but I really shouldn't be telling you this." Shana shook her head. "Dart wouldn't like it if I told you this, but yeah... Your right... So don't ask me anything else!" Shana scolded before returning to her lunch. 

Miranda was on alert, she felt like she was in some sort of strange paradoxical world where everything was turning upside down and running out of control. She came around a corner to see Alulan talking lightly with two guards, she couldn't help but feel uneasy. 

"Correct Sir!" One of the guards said to the other. 

"Hm... I should speak to King Albert about this...." Alulan said to them. 

"About what?!" Miranda snapped. 

"Lady Miranda!" The captain said turn and looking at her. "We were just speaking to Sir Alulan here about a strange figure we spotted." 

"Johan can you go tell the King about this... Or even Kaiser, we'll explain this to the Lady." Alulan pronounced, while the younger Knight in blue nodded and hurried off. "Some of the maids reported to Captain Bryan here that saw a strange maid running about, however when they asked about her they found out that we haven't higher anyone new for two months." 

"So this person is posing as a maid? What do they look like?" 

Captain Bryan stepped forward, "I asked the maids myself, madam. They told me she was blue eyed, about 5' 4", she had a long blond braid hanging over her left shoulder and longer bangs which covered most of her eyes. She wore a normal maids outfit so I had them ask if any have gone missing. They also noticed that she was wearing a rather expensive looking ring, apparently far to clunky for a maid." 

Miranda gave a hard look at Alulan. "Have either of you seen a maid which looked like this?" She asked carefully, if it was who she suspected the girl must have gone right for him.... 

"I thought I did a while back however this person was missing some for the distinct figures, like the ring." Alulan responded. 

"I haven't seen anyone Madam." The captain replied. 

"Hm... Do you know where Albert is?" 

"He should be in his room, that is where I last saw him." Alulan told her, giving her a distinct feeling that he was stalking Albert. 

"I see, tell them to keep an eye out for this girl but let them know that she's not a real threat, and shouldn't be harmed." Miranda stated, then as an after thought. "This is Dragoon business." And with that she stalked off unable to keep her eye from twitching. 

"I tell you Alulan, some of these Dragoon types really hate you. If I were you I'd watch my back... Might want to keep it down that I support you however, might get stoned for something like that alright." Captain Bryan said with a wink. 

"What do you mean Bryan?" Alulan asked his eyes narrowing. 

"Sorry man I'm under an oath." He spread his hands and shrugged before walking off. "I'll tell the rest of the guys about his girl, so relax." 

Miranda stalked up the stairs to her own room that night, she stopped however when she heard Albert speaking to someone about the strange who appeared. Wondering if any new developments had come about she leaned up against the corner and listened in. 

"I don't know Albert, no one has seen this person since this morning... All I can tell you is that I highly doubt that it's _Him_..." Kaiser said from around the side of the wall. 

"I want you to keep guards all night at the doors to Alulan's, Raizel's and Balder's rooms. Just incase." Albert replied firmly. 

"I was thinking that myself. I'll be off then to tell them that." Kaiser gave Albert a slight salute, and Miranda slipped off to her own room wondering about the complex issues at hand. 

A/N: Not much to say, I'll be off for thanksgiving so I wont really see any of you then! ^.^ Review that's all I'll ever ask! 

Alulan: EVERYONE HATES ME!!! *SOB* 

Sors: Now now... It's okay, better days are ahead! 

Alulan: Really? 

Sors: ^.^ Like hell no! This fic is angsty!! 


	7. Cat and Mouse

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_Blue morning, blue morning  
Wrapped in strands of fist and bone  
Curiosity, Kitten, doesn't have to mean you're on your own  
You can look outside your window  
He doesn't have to know_  
  
**Counting Crows**. **A Murder Of One**.

Miranda looked about the main hall. Just yesterday she had found out about Wink, and after speaking to one of the guards who had seen her she was positive that it was her sister. Today she was going to be something of a hunt. She had already enquired the help of most of the guards, and informed the rest of the dragoons about the slight problem. It was unlikely that Wink knew how much damage she could do by just telling the three about who they were... 

No time to waist however, she had to be off looking for her rather misplaced sister. 

She headed up the main flight of stairs, looking intently at every maid who went by her. Which wasn't very many since there were about four or five different paths which were hidden for them to travel with. They had been informed as well about the newcomer, or outsider. With any luck they would catch her first. 

However something concerned her, she sister had been know to be a bit of a bookie... No one but Albert ever went into the library... So, carefully opening the well worn doors she looked inside. A few masses of papers and pens lay strung about the desk, while about four filled and neat book shelves rested behind it. _Wait till Albert sees his wedding gift..._ She thought to her self knowing that some of the precious copies from the National Library of Mille Seseau would make him explode. 

She leafed about some of the books on the shelves, mostly common things about history. Quite a few banking records and things about taxes, land owners, and so forth. Only a few scientific novels, and one book which had simply things like fairytales. She picked it off the shelf and looked into it. 

And surprisingly there where seven figure of winged creatures standing on columns right on the front. Poorly illustrated, but no the less spectacular. It was hard to believe that only a year ago most of the world still thought that Dragoons were fairytales and Winglies stories....

_Hard to believe that someday it will be the same, people will forget... I'll be just another fairytale. So strange..._

She pealed the old book open to the first page, well decorated with some different little figure that made her think of Mermaids. 

**On the ancient days, in the ancient times... people, rise... The great empire rules, and a god gave it's life for the... **

It was horribly faded, almost so much that she couldn't make any sense of the strange pieces. So tired of the far less than interesting novel Miranda shut it carefully and moved from the library to the main part of the castle. Her footsteps carried her past a few of the Knights, one of which was chatting about the missing blond maid... "Bet she a hot one!" "I think she must have gotten kidnapped!" _Soa can't these people get anything right? _

She flung her fair hair out of her face and turned to head towards the Royal Garden, almost running smack into a black clothed man.

"Excuse me Sacred Sister Miranda." He said stepping back, she got the impression that he was attempting to get away from her as soon as possible. 

"Ah... Who are you?" She asked thinking that anything having to do with him wasn't good... Better to stall him after all.

"I'm Alulan King Albert's counselor and tactician, I believe I was introduced the other night to you.

"Yes, I didn't quite catch the name." She couldn't help the nasty little glare she gave him. "And I suppose you must be quite bored now that the war is done and over with." 

He reacted at first annoyed but recovered with an edge. "Not at all, King Albert has quite a lot to deal with on his hands due to the up and coming wedding so there is much to do." 

"I'm sure he does... You wouldn't have happened to see that blond maid anywhere would you?" She asked wondering if he had seen anything since the other day. 

"Not at all, however I'm quite sure that if anyone sees her it will be one of the knights."

"Hmpf." _He's treading me like I'm some damn princess... For crying out loud not even Dart can stand me when edge him on..._ "What do you think of the soon to be Queen?" She tried to hiss at him, after all what better way to shove Albert's nose in the fact that he had higher his best friend's murderer than getting the guy to attack someone. 

"I don't know her personally but she is quite beautiful, and Albert is quite happy about her so I see no reason not to like her." He paused as if considering something. "In any case I'm quite busy and if you'll excuse me I'll be going." 

"Of course... Nice to meet you Alulan." He didn't show any sign at her nice reaction, maybe he was expecting it. Personally Miranda didn't care, however she was a bit to curious about where he was going. She waited for him to go out of sight, and then started down toward the Gardens, there just wasn't any other place he could go unless he was heading unto town and she'd be able to see him if he went that way. A small smile crept to her face. 

"Just like cat and mouse..." She pondered as she glanced out a window and was caught by surprised as Raizel and Alulan suddenly appeared not far from the window, yet well hidden behind a large hedge of roses. _Soa I hate roses..._

She watched for a bit longer and was quite stunned when Balder came walking up to them, giving them both a nod. _Damn it! I just know they are scheming! _And with those thoughts she headed around to the other entrance of the Garden to attempt to spy.

"Alulan, Raizel." Balder said as he joined them.

"Balder." Alulan responded, while Raizel smiled.

"I heard the whole castle is on alert for some blond girl." He said. "She have anything to do with us?

"I didn't think so however... The Light Dragoon Miranda seems to be quite interested in the matter, rather annoying about it in fact." 

"I think that's just Miranda." Raizel stated, flicking her hand through her hair. "I think... Shana doesn't like her very much. And according to her Miranda has always been quite the bitch."

Alulan gave her an odd look. "She didn't seem to horribly bad, more like she was testing me." 

"Hm..." Balder looked around. "In any case this girl, I get the feeling she has something to do with us."

"So do I." Raizel agreed seeming slightly more creepy than normal. 

"All in favor of trying to contact this person before the Dragoons get to her?" Balder asked, while both of them nodded. "Alright. I'm considering that one of us try to do some looking about during the wedding. Anything would be helpful, and since they will all be busy with it, it should give us time to look about." 

"Maybe we can uncover something on this Melbu figure." Alulan commented.

"Oh! Balder! Shana talked to me, she said we were together... And stuff but it was awhile back or something so I think I got in a fight with you." Raizel piped up.

"What?" Alulan puzzled.

"Never mind..." 

A/N: Some expos on stuff! 

Raizel = Not so dark and POed cause she forgot all the crappy things that have happened to her. 

Balder = Is like a little kid cause he's blond and forgot all the crappy stuff too.

Alulan = Stuck up cause he's around all these stuck up ministers and peoples. Also less depressed cause he forgot stuff! 

TADA! ^.^


	8. Watching a Rose through the bushes

**Bringing of the Shadows**

  


It's a cross I need to bear  
All this black and cruel despair  
This is an emergency  
Don't you hide your eyes from me  
Open them and see me now  
  
T.a.t.u. Clowns

Meru skipped along the path to the gardens, she had never been to Bale before and was slightly interested in exploring the whole of the place. Her eyes roamed about the rose bushes and flowery vases which seemed almost to ornate for the simple garden. As she turned around another hedge she saw something most unique. The trio of the dead sitting plainly in the center of the gardens, speaking as if they had known each other for ages. 

It might not have unnerved her so much if she hadn't remember the loss of their memories. It was eerie in a way, and yet comforting in another to see them there. She paused wondering if it would be better to listen in or join in. However that eerie feeling won out and she watched and listened from behind the hedge. 

Alulan was the first one she could hear. "I wonder if we were on the side of this Melbu?" He questioned.

"That's the best I can assume." Balder responded, thinking for a moment he continued. "Either that or we defied them in some way, perhaps one of their friends died because of us? That would likely warrant a revenge." 

"It would... But it doesn't explain why we had our memories wiped!" Raizel complained. 

"No it doesn't, for a revenge I would expect death, especially from some of them. You wouldn't understand maybe... But Dart... That man just makes me feel guilty all through, it's like I killed his girlfriend or something." Alulan exclaimed towards them. 

"Heh, to the best of my knowledge Shana's never died.." Raizel commented brushing some hair out of her face. "Dart is rather the cold type, wouldn't surprise me if you stepped on his favorite toy when he was little." She said with a sly grin. 

"Now come on Raizel, Dart isn't that horrible." Balder said suddenly blanching. "Then again he is rather strange to be around, I think he treats me like his father."

"Well he used to be the Red-Eye Dragoon." Alulan said crossing his arms, his gaze drifting near to where Meru was hiding. "Maybe we should talk about this later, I have something to do for Albert." 

"When?" Raizel asked. 

"Very soon here, this wedding is quite maddening. If you ask me the time of this couldn't be worse, and it's not just that!" 

"Heh, playing the King's pet running you down?" Zieg asked, suddenly rubbing the back of his head. "You know I have no idea where that came from, sorry." 

"The more we're around each other, the more we recollect things." Raizel stated. "I assume that is why the dragoons have been keeping us separated. Not just that however, if we are to regain full memories then we'll probably have reason to act against them. Better divided then together." 

"That's Albert's logic on most things." Alulan glanced briefly in Meru direction, and then leaned down next to Raizel and whispered something in her ear. Balder looked like he was about to shove Alulan away when Raizel suddenly grabbed Balder's hand and walked off from the garden. Alulan took another look in Meru direction before heading back inside the castle. 

Meru crouched in the rose bush for a moment more before leaping up and out of the garden, and quite literally dashing up the stairs towards the thrown room. Pushing the large doors out of her way she leaped inside to find Kaiser standing at attention next to Albert's room. "Hey knight guy!" She called out rushing over towards him, who jumped visibly when he heard her. 

"What... Is it Miss. Maru?!" 

"It's Meru pal, get it straight! Now where is Albert and Dart?" She asked waving her hands about for influence. 

"Their in his bed room... But they said they did not want to be disturbed!" He suddenly said shooting his arm out in front of the door knob. 

"WHAT!?!" Meru practically tried to pry the man's face off as she heard what he was saying. 

Suddenly the door burst open and a hand reached out grabbing Meru's hear. "Dear Soa you little BRAT, what is it!?" Miranda almost yelled herself giving Kaiser one of the worst glares the man had ever received. 

"It's about Raizel, Balder and Alulan! And I need to talk to Dart!" She suddenly burst out at Miranda. 

"For god sakes woman would you shut up?" Dart suddenly yelled from inside the room, quieting them both. 

At this Meru slipped underneath Miranda's arm and rushed over to Dart. "Dart! Holy crap you'll never believe what I just saw/heard!" 

"What?" 

"Balder, Raizel and Alulan were all talking..." At that moment Miranda suddenly shoved her inside, while Albert popped up from his desk. 

"Go on!" He said pushing Dart aside. 

"Well they said they thought they were on Melbu side before they got memory wiped, and then started complaining about Dart. And Balder thinks you treat him like a father, isn't that amazing!?" 

"Well it's kind of hard not to." Dart said rubbing the back of his head. 

"You must have caught the rest of the conversation then Meru, I follow Alulan down there but when they started talking I headed up here to tell Dart." Miranda stated. 

"This isn't good." Albert said rubbing his forehead. "First Wink, now we know for a fact that they are regaining things from their memories. We need to speak to Charle about this."

"Agreed, if possible we need to also keep them separated." Dart added. 

"I can keep Alulan fairly busy, with the wedding tomorrow he should be well kept up." 

"I'll watch Raizel, since she's not to creepy." Meru volunteered. 

"You might want to ask Shana to come along, they seem to have a friendship formed." Dart paused. "I'll look after Balder." 

"Soa damn this! I'll keep up the search for Wink." Miranda huffed before rushing out of the room. 

"Why do I get the feeling she need to get la..." Meru suddenly smiled. "Hahaaa! Never mind!" And went dashing out of the room in search of Raizel. 

"The attack on Raizel... It must have given them even more reason to be suspicious." Albert stated closing the door, and sitting back down at his desk. 

"I'm starting to agree with your original idea Albert, perhaps wiping their memories was just..." 

"Don't start on that Dart, this is too complicated for us to try and deal with on our own. You can only harbor so many burdens." 

"You think I don't understand that now?" Dart brought up his hand to his forehead. "Your right about it being to complex, but there is nothing more we can do but to keep this here." 

Albert turned up from his papers. "Tomorrow is my wedding Dart, I don't want to see you in such a bad mood. Just let this go, if something new happens we'll take care of it when it does. We can't read his mind, we can't predict what he will do... But we can counter any action he might take." 

"Right." And with those parting words the leader of the dragoons stepped out of the room, and walked back across the pathway to the main castle. 

A/N: Man, I'm really sorry about the lateness of this new chapter... Makes me feel all guilty and stuff! But please continue to read, I'm sure you'll be pleased by what happens! I've got the next chapter fairly written so it should be up on time, next week! 

Dart: I think my brain is going to explode.... 

Sors: You mean implode. 

Dart: Why does everyone peg me as an idiot? 

Sors: *cough cough* Oh Rose! My classics are bad, read this sign for me will you? 

Dart: When the hell did I say that! @.@ 

Sors: You know that place where you take the break and fall off the cliff... Rose has all those flash backs and what not? Yeah, you get her to read a freaking sign for you cause your classics are bad!!! 

Dart: Oh yeah.... ^.^ 


	9. A diamond is a girl's best friend

**Bringing of the ShadowsAnother day is going by  
I'm thinking about you all the time  
But you're out there  
And I'm here waiting  
Simple Plan. **

I'd Do Anything 

Wink eyed the stairwell in front of her, two guards had just passed up it, and a single woman with a silky dress had just made her way down. Waiting a few more seconds, she slipped out from behind the pillar where she was hiding. Taking a final look about she dashed up the stairs. Swinging her self around she rushed up the second flight, and then snuck outside through a door which lead to a outdoor walkway. She stayed there a moment before peeping in the door at the other end, finding the room empty she hurried inside from the chilly night air and headed down a near by corridor.

Just turning off towards another hall was a woman with long black hair and dark clothing to match. Wink smiled, carefully following the woman. After only two more turns the dark figure knocked ever so quietly on the door of a room. The door swung open, and the woman rushed in.

Wink immediately followed, but rather than knocking she pressed her ear up against the door.

_So it was true! I knew it!!! Man, that will be the last time that Miranda just leaves a letter laying about. _

After the long and frankly boring journey south following Miranda on her way to Bale, Wink had managed to sneak into the castle, steal a maid's outfit and start hiding about. Waiting and watching for her Lloyd. However after only a day the knight's in the castle were all giving her the most strange looks. A few even began to approach her, as if wanting to interrogate her. Suspicious of their strange attitude she snuck back into town, where she stayed hidden at the inn for what seemed like an age.

Now believing that things were quieting down at the castle with the wedding approaching tomorrow she took her chances and snuck back in. Having to first fight her way past some drunk, then through a long series of tunnels and finally up a latter which she swore was swaying when she climbed it.

As she emerged in the castle she was forced to hide behind three pillars, one oven, under some ridiculously large dinning table and behind a set of curtains. However her tiring efforts has paid off quite nicely. For here she was hot on the trail of one of the three dead people.

She could almost giggle with excitement at her little adventure, when she swore she saw a little flicker of blue in the window. Hiding behind the curtains she waited, and sure enough Meru's eyes popped up from over the window sill, looking in and seeming to search the room for someone.

Finally giving up the search, the wingly flew off into the night. However Wink wasted no time in rushing off, knowing that her sister would stop at nothing to hunt her down and ship her back to Deningrad.

"Crap!" She exclaimed under her breath. She ducked a pair of guards who went romping back up the stairs which she had just come down.

Finally hitting the basement she hurried back into town. Past a slightly more sleepy drunk.

Side Story 1: Guaraha and the Merchant. 

Guaraha's eyes wondered up and down the streets. This outside world still held some of its uneasy feeling. Every so often a human would glance his way and stare at him, he'd stare back of course, which tended to unsettle the humans greatly. At least he wasn't staring at them like he had stared at some red haired girl, her mother had almost swiped his head off because he had never seen red hair before.

A pair of latters were leaned up against one of the straw covered buildings. He noticed a sign hung out from the side of a building with what appeared to be a jewel, next to it was a slightly faded paint which read out in human text "Jewelers". He paused for a moment reaching into his pocket and pondering something, finally he frowned and entered the small shop.

It's walls were decorated with little wooden sticks, around each hung strings with every sort of bead imaginable. The far corner of the room held a large box filled with an assortments of stones and rocks for carving. On the right wall lurked a shelf with glass covering, underneath were the proper type of jewelry; necklaces, earrings, rings, bracelets, and a few hair decorations. He wondered vaguely past a older man and what appeared to be his daughter towards the shelf. Almost instantly a middle aged woman popped up from behind the counter. "May I help you sir?"

"I'm looking for a ring." Guaraha said, staring down into the glass box, "A wedding ring."

"Oh! I've got some wonderful things that I think you'd be interested in." She hurried away from the glass shelf, and pulled something out from behind the other counter. it was a little silky black box containing sliver and gold rings, all with large diamonds in them. "These are the very best of our wedding rings, all of these have matching plain rings for the guys."

"Hm..." he scoured over the rings. "You wouldn't have anything in platinum would you?"

"Platinum? You must be nuts, only the best shops in Lohan and Feltz carry anything made out of that." She responded.

"You must be kidding me, there has to be some place around here that has a wedding ring like that!" He yelled puzzled by the lack of platinum in a large capitol such as Bale.

She shook her head. "Not anyone I know of, maybe you could look into the castle, but anything they have is going to be historically valuable, so I highly doubt King Albert would sell it to you."

"Ah... Alright then." He walked back out of the room and started back down the main road. Deeply disapointed a the fact that humans didn't seem to carry or mine platinum in the same quanity as winglies. He came across a second very similar shop, this one was slightly different by the fact that its sign had a large sword cutting into the jewel. Shrugging and figuring that humans would most likely lie to people about their competition, he entered.

This place was filled with more decorative weaponry and high class furniture then he had been expecting. Both of the walls had cases filled with decorated boxes, daggers, and fetishes. He eyed the younger man at the counter, the guy was asleep, his drool just starting to creep over the edge of his mouth. _Kinda like Shonia,_ he thought.

He walked politely over to the counter and tapped the man on the shoulder, he didn't stir. Guaraha eyed him, and then shook his shoulder lightly. This time he got a bit of a reaction, but the man drifted away after only a second. Finally Guaraha took the ultimate measure. Grasping both of the man's shoulders in his hands he began to shake, "WAKE UP!"

The man who had been happily sleeping a moment before jumped out of his seat with enough force to knock Guaraha right off his balance and down into the floor. Standing up he found the man ashen pale, with a horribly frighten look on his face.

"Dear Soa.... Ug..." He sat back down in his chair, and looked at the wingly. "For Soa's sake... You needn't have done that to wake me up. See the bell?" He asked pointing to a small bell on the desk, with a written note below it. _Ring me._

"Ah... No I'm afraid I did not." The man just shook his head in response.

"So what can I do for you?"

"I need a platinum wedding ring." Guaraha responded.

"Platinum? Hm... The only one I've got has a nice ruby in it, I made it for King Albert about a week ago... Think it was a present for some one..." The man reached behind the counter and brought out a white box, opening it up he revealed the platinum ring with the ruby in the center, two little ornate diamonds had also been added to the gift. " Erm... I think it's a gift for that water dragoon.. Erg! The pretty silver haired girl.. Arg, sorry man I forget her name!"

"Meru." Guaraha stated.

"Heh heh, yeah that's it. She used to be a big hit in Donau, I saw her once there. Speaking of which you guys kinda look alike."

"We do?" Guaraha asked puzzled.

"Oh yeah, silver hair, red eyes! My god! That one tactician Albert has looks like you too!" The man jumped out of his seat and shook his finger at Guaraha's face. "Don't tell me your all related!?"

"Oh! No we're not, we're just all winglies." He replied, brushing a hand though his hair.

"Ya don't say, well that's a sign of things changing. I had no clue." He rubbed his fingers against his forehead. "Don't tell Meru about her present tho, I'm sure Albert would be mighty disappointed if word got out."

"Sure. So how long would it take to custom make a wedding ring in platinum?"

"Uh... Lessee. A full month, about a week or two for the supplies from the Tiberona Border Mine. Another week for the construction. What type of diamond were you lookin at?"

"Do you have any examples?" Guaraha asked, pushing the box with Meru's birthday present back across the table.

"Well... I have a few already cut things." He removed the box from the shelf, and reached back down for another white box. This one containing pre cut diamonds. "Yeah, here we go. Most of these are gonna cost... Wait a second how do you plain on paying for this?" He man inquired.

"Payment? Well I have a fair amount of Gold, you see. What would it cost to make?"

"Ah, well I'd think somewhere around 8-9000 gold. Maybe ten if we pick out a large stone."

"Well that's no problem then."

"Really? Are all you wingly types this rich?"

"Ah, well if you must know Meru is my fiancée. That's why I've got this money." Guaraha responded rubbing the back of his neck uneasily.

"Amazing..." The man shook his head and returned to the box. "So, this is what I got. I'd judge, these would be about 1000g" he said outlining a small area. "These medium sized ones are 1500 to 2000. And this row here are all 3000 plus."

"Alright." Guaraha ran his eye along the stones, finally setting on one near the 3000 plus row, but of course not in it. "This looks good"

"Splendid! Since this is commission I'll need some paper work, and I've got Meru's ring size off of Albert... So" He fished around for some of the pages below his desk. "All I need is a small prepay fee, just in case you run off and leave me with the ring."

"How much?" Guaraha asked.

"4k It's usually about half up front, you see."

"Of course, I'll need to go and fetch the money first however. Will you be open tomorrow...?"

The man gave Guaraha a strange look, "Of course not! It's wedding day everyone but the venders will be off!"

"Thought so, when would be the best day?"

"Friday, could you come back then?" He asked, sliding the pages and the pen over.

"Friday is fine, I should be here for the rest of this month. Unless Meru wants to leave early, and in any case we'll be back for her birthday it seems."

"Hey yeah, looks like I became Meru's personal jeweler with out even knowing her." The man shook his head and waited as Guaraha finished up with the papers.

Guaraha left the jewelers thinking about how in the human world, there was always someone who would get the work done. Sort of different from the wingly world, where there was always someone you could force to get the work done. He looked up, the sun just barely casting it's light on the top of the castle. A bar was just down the street, and he thought he saw a young girl with sliver hair go dashing in there.

He approached the bar and entered, sitting at one of the few open tables near the fire place. Even if he had grown up in a cold climate, there was something about the constant artificial warmth of the wingly homes which was longed for. He sat there for a small amount of time, before the true owner of the silver hair came over to him. Apron on and little tablet of paper in hand. "Hello sir!" She said with a wink. "What can I get you?"

"I'll take the soup." He responded smiling at the fellow wingly. She was the first one he had seen outside of the Dragoon's group.

"Alright, we have some good Me'l tonight if your interested." Me'l being the wingly word for wine, it was most likely a test to see if he really was a wingly.

"I'd love some, but Roe Me'l is preferable if you have it." Guaraha passed the girl's test with flying colors, for she sprang off to deliver his order.

He sat and watched the fire, and her through the side of his face. Finally she returned with the dinner, and his red wine. "Sorry about the wait, since the wedding is tomorrow everyone is coming in to gossip. But if you'd like I have a break in twenty minutes, we could talk?"

"That'd be wonderful." he responded smiling, and picking up his wine. He was sure that it was less than twenty minutes when she returned, with a pair of glasses, both Roe Me'l.

"Well hello, I thought you might want some more." She spoke setting the drink down in front of him.

"Sure." He paused as he took a sip. "My name is Guaraha."

"Suager, all the humans around here get confused and call me Sugar." She said waving her long silvery hair behind her ear. "It's been awhile since I had someone to talk to."

"Hasn't been to long for me, although the company has been minimal." He told her with a smirk.

"How so?"

"You know of Meru, the water dragoon?"

"Oh! Her? She was such a sweetie, I ran into her one year in Donau. You come from her country?"

"Her forest more like it, then of course there is Alulan... Albert's Tactician." He stated.

"Oh... That man, urg. I've got some fairly good senses... I took one look at him and thought, evil! And what's creepy is it seems like I was right, but he had a ta'ch on him."

"Ta'ch, that's what Meru thought. She's rather poor when it comes to things that involve magic, so she didn't voice it." Guaraha sighed. "She'd really be much better if she tried, especially now."

"Ahoy, anyway I've seen him once to twice when he came in here to eat. The ta'ch is gone now, but he's got something new on him. Like an Amamaru, but different, and a lot better you see."

"Of course, he got his memory wiped after the Moon fell," he responded.

"Did he really? I had no idea anyone had that power, considering that he was the most powerful I've ever seen." She relaxed her hand against her face.

"Sorry, it's uin'clas so to speak."

"Damn, can't get anything in or out of anyone these days." She snorted as some men came to sit with them, the seating had almost filled up.

"'ello." One of them said to her. "Brother or something Sugar?"

She looked over at Guaraha with a wink, "Oh no, it's my father."

"Ya don't say." The other responded leaning over the table and looking at Guaraha, who just sat there sternly.

"My dear, if your brushing elbows with this sort of people I must insist that you come home!" Guaraha spoke just barely maintaining a straight face.

"By Soa, papaaa! I doon't wanna go home!" She sobbed.

"We don't want 'er to go home either! Come on papa! Be nice to the girl!" The first man responded, panicking.

"Hm... I'll have to think about it, in the mean time..." Suddenly a cry echoed from the street outside, it sounded like the scream that a overgrown bat might make.

"Another murder?" The man asked.

"On a day such as this?" The other asked, they both gave Guaraha a glance.

"Has there been others? I'm going to go look into." Guaraha responded, not entirely surprised to find Sugar was following him out.

"Yeah..." She murmured, as they exited the bar they saw a small group of people gathering around a corner of the street only a few dozen feet away. Hurrying over they looked down to see the body of a knight. People were whispering, and giving each other uneasy looks. Sugar looked up at him, and whispered something underneath her breath to him.

"Noi cam' deba deiavia sort fina curops ta'ch... Famin corim reiso junya."

_It feels the same as the shadow that was around the man with the corruption... It must be evil." _

Guaraha spun around, looking down the streets and into the sky. "Melbu Frama?" He asked the wind, but all that returned was a strange look from Sugar.

A/N: hope you liked the side story in this piece. I've always wanted to stick one in, just haven't had space till now! So I hope you enjoyed! Review cause I'm a spiteful bitch!


	10. You'll need those documents signed You k...

**Bringing of the ShadowsWell am I making haste or could it be haste is making me  
What's time but a thing to kill or keep or buy or lose or live in  
I gotta go faster  
Keep up the pace  
Just to stay in the human race  
  
REM. Pace**

Albert sat into his thrown, just like he had every day before, but today it felt different. There was that silence in the air that came from anticipation. Even the fighting duo of Noish and Kaiser had put off their chastising for a little while. Alulan was standing near by, his casual self seeming slightly more preoccupied then usual.

Albert found himself cracking his knuckles in something mixed with anxiety. His vision wondered upon the sky which he could slightly see from the pair of doors to the balcony. A knight moved up across the room, and then bowed.

"Breakfast will take place soon my lord," the man spoke rising from his bow.

"Splended." Albert nodded, noticing that Dart was standing near by the door way. His arms crossed and waiting. "Let us go then." Albert spoke waving to the other people in the room.

As he walked over Dart joined in right next to him in the precession. "We have conformation from Meru, Wink is here." Dark spoke in one fluent sentence.

"I see, nothing we can do till tomorrow." Albert said giving his friend a smile.

Dart just waved his hand, "Yeah, we all could use a nice break. I'm gonna try and skip out till after the wedding, so I hope you don't have some speech planed for me."

"I know what you think, that I'm quite stupid Dart; however I've noticed your terrible presentation habits..." Albert waved his hand back and forth. "Really couldn't let some hick from the prairie give a lecture now could I?"

Dart rolled his eyes uncharacteristically and then looked behind them, noticing Alulan giving the duo an odd look. "Heh, anyway..."

Albert recovering him self from a slight laugh looked back over. "Yes?"

"Don't screw up." Dart replied and walked off down another corridor, leaving Albert to scratch the back of his head in mystery to the comment.

Alulan who managed to remain completely forgotten during breakfast soon found himself running errands like a house maid. If Albert wasn't asking him to look after something, or dash off and find someone; then Kaiser was talking to him about the cultural advantages to having the wedding. Even Noish who normally kept a fair amount of distance from Alulan was suddenly bouncing back an forth like a father telling Alulan that he had raised a wonderful King.

"Bla bla blaaa blaa baaa blaa blaa blablaaa!" Noish exclaimed, not that Alulan really heard a single word from the man's mouth.

Albert who had been carefully sorting through his massive pile of writings and so forth on his desk suddenly jumped. "Noish! We got to go check down in the Library for my speech!" Grabbing the older man's arm, Albert practically dragged the man away. Leaving Alulan conveniently alone in the room.

"Wonderful." Alulan stated clasping his hands together. Thinking how this somehow felt familiar to be ravishing through Albert's desk. "Hm... He wouldn't leave anything important laying about... Hidden draws reveal thy self!" he shouted quietly as he felt around the base of the shelves. Then with a little pop a door flew open not to far from his knee. Eyeing the small white parchment inside he pulled the top piece forth. "Got you." He smirked and leaned back in Albert's chair, propping his feet up upon the desk. Folding the paper apart his stared at the foreign writing, and then jumped up when he recognized it.

"Al-... Albert! Ha! Albert," The strange curly writing was easier to read now. "I hear that the trio has been becoming more aware, unfortunately we can not risk the second memory wipe to soon..." Alulan stopped his reading, stunned. The sound of clattering feet approached, and Alulan slammed the door close and stuffed the letter into his back pocket. And in his mind all he thought about the smiling Albert was; _You were a part of this too. _

Shana looked over at Raizel, who was being hurried about by the ever hyper Meru. She sighed wondering how it was that Meru even wanted to spend time with a person she had once thought _icky._ "Hello," She said wondering over to the pair.

"Heya Shana!" Meru burst out while giving her a wink.

"Hello." Raizel said with a smile. "Would you like to come to the library with me, Meru still trying to force me out into the crowds."

"Um... Sure." Shana said, giving a little shrug.

"Thanks." Raizel responded, walking off towards the library.

Meru pulled on Shana's arm for a moment. "Don't let her get into anything, we know Wink's been around and if anything slips..."

"Yeah, don't worry." Shana said with a shrug. "I'll watch her." And with that, she hurried after Raizel.

The library had grown over the years, it was now having a large attachment build onto it. With the new outburst in the economy Albert's hobby with books could easily afford to expand. For now however the small circular room was all there was for the massive amount of books and paper work which Albert had collected. Rose stretched her arms, "I was going to look through some of these things... I'm trying to find out a bit about the dragoons," She paused, "and maybe a nice gift for Albert."

"Most of us got him books already." Shana stated.

"Oh, well no harm looking." Raizel said with a shrug, shoveling through the papers on the desk. It was just about then that Albert and a very scared Noish came bursting though the door.

"Shana! Raizel! Have either of you seen my speech?!' He asked ruffling through the papers with Raizel.

"Um... What does it look like?" The brunet asked looking worriedly at the slightly dazed Noish.

"Three pieces of paper kept together by a green folder. Erg! I know it must be here!" Albert stressed out far more then anyone had ever seen him do before. Raizel began to poke around in draws beneath the large table; it seemed that the multiple layers of paper work scattered about these oak draws was quite uncharacteristic of the soon-to-be-married King.

"Hey!" Shana shouted from the cabinet which Alulan's reference had been towards, "There's a green folder in here Albert!"

"There is!?" Albert leaped up from his place near the table and dashed towards the cabinet, quickly pulling out a key he unlocked the large piece of furniture and placed the key haphazardly on top. Pulling out the green folder the man let out a happy sigh. "Thank you Shana." He closed the cabinet behind him and turned about to give Shana a smile and pat on the head.

"No problem." She responded, "Just don't freak me out like that again."

"Of course." The King waved at Noish who was looking greatly relieved as well, and headed out of the Library.

"Strange." Raizel remarked, sitting back down only slightly looking at key on top of the cabinet.

"Yeah," Shana replied walking over to the window seat in the room, she curled up on it and looked across at Raizel. "I'm kinda tired, and I wanna stay up for the party so do you mind if I take a nap?"

"No, it's fine." Raizel replied, as she walked over to the shelf and pulled off a book. "I might take one too."

"Okies..." Shana said as she started to drift off into a nap.

Raizel sat there for quite some time listening to Shana's breathing, counting the breaths and keeping track of each hundred by flipping a page. When the page number finally fell upon twenty she moved from her place. Slipping quietly over to the bookshelf she reached up and pulled down the key. Placing it into it's home she turned it slowly, smiling when it went the full distance round without squeaking. The cabinet gave off a little pop as the lock was released, and quickly Raizel reached inside. The first thing she grabbed was a letter, it's shambling handwriting rather matched the name which scrolled across it's front.

_Dart Field, Addressed to Albert._

Shrugging she flipped the letter open and strolled back into the main seat in the room.

_Dear Albert,_

_Under Charle's instruction I've been keeping Raizel and Balder separate... So stressful however Shana is managing this a lot better than I am. She did however suggest that Raizel might be better of in another place, however I'm not willing to risk anyone recognizing her. I must admit that this is quite amazing to see how well you've faired with Alulan, I still think he'd be better off back in Deningrad as Miranda suggested. _

_In more concerning news Miranda check into Faust as Charle asked, he's no longer present in his dungeon at . My only guess is that Melbu has caught up with the man and taken him back as his old General. Meru says she'll be keeping an eye on things around the area until the wedding comes. _

_Do you mind if I don't bring them to the wedding, I realize how everyone must want to see them.. However I'd rather not risk the idea that they might remember something. _

_Dart._

Raizel blinked, and then sighed as she turned back over to the cabinet and pulled forth a few more pieces of paper. Two of them were decorated in a language she'd never seen before, but she pocketed them all the same. Looking at the final shelf on the cabinet she reached in and pulled forth a book. On the cover there was a large golden insignia of a moon. Shaking her head she slipped the book into the drawer near the desk, and moved towards the sleeping Shana.

"Hey." She said with a slight shake. "I think I know what to get Albert now."

"Umph.. Alright." The brown haired girl replied in response.

A/N: Thank you to all who reviewed! I really appreciate it! The next chapter shall be the wonderful wedding chapter, expect it near the end of the month... Also expect it to be quite long (the joy of longer chapters!) After that everything shall pick up, and thanks to summer I should be able to keep up with the pace.

Review (cause I know you already read!) XP


	11. Wouldn't it be funny if she said I don't...

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_ Feeling so strong I feel so inspired   
Like a man with all the words   
I could move the world   
If I weren't so tired_

  
So. Fates Warning.

Balder kicked his feet up upon the oak table, staring across it and out the window where three knights were confronting Dart. At first he seemed a little frustrated with the men, however after a time he settled down. Shana stood next to him for a little while, being patient and hoping to reclaim her beloved from the flattering knights. Yet it was not to be, one of the men who had served under one of Lavits' division asked Dart to come out and celebrate the marriage of their king. Shana walked away obviously disappointed.

Dart waved to Balder as he passed by, "Come with us?"

"Why not." Balder responded, following one of the knights behind Dart.

The group moved out of the unguarded castle and down into town where already the bars were open and quite filled with people. The streets were lined with vendors; who sold everything from fireworks to food. A little Minitos not far away lit up the street by supplying a small optical trick using magic and mirrors. The group ended up heading further on down the street and around a bend till they hit a small doorway. "Best place to drink, if your a knight." One of the men commented as they headed down into the little room which quickly opened up into a bar. It had three windows which looked out through glass into the water of the small pond near the castle, and was lit by humming little fireflies and a few torches of green flame.

"Hun, I though I wouldn't see that stuff unless I went back to..." Dart commented being cut off.

"Yeah, trades been up quite a but, the best part of those is that they don't put off smoke." The knight to Dart's left spoke. "Before this pace used to be really... Well dark and hard to breath in."

"That's quite interesting." Dart replied, as they all moved over to the corner both which would easily hold them.

Balder paused on the way to pass his hand for a moment through he flames. As with any other flame he ever touched they did not burn him. A few of the knights already at the table stared at the act, and then looked over at Dart.

"Can you do that too?"

"Naw, it's perks of being the Red-Eye Dragoon, not the Divine one."

Balder shrugged as he sat down. "I kinda thought since it was green it would burn."

"So did I." Dart watched as the waitress moved over, her long blown hair bouncing as she walked. He smiled, as most of the men started to explain to her exactly who their "guest of honor" was. Then they started in with Balder who just laughed.

It was then that he noticed a young girl speaking fervently to the man who stood at the counter, she looked like she was in a dreadful mess. He frowned, she matched the description perfectly of the woman who was said to have been sneaking about the castle. For a moment he wondered about telling the knights, but as soon as he turned back to them he saw her vanish out of sight. Frowning, he felt Dart give him something of a kick from underneath the table. He looked across and smiled at the man.

"What wonderful day we have ahead." Balder said, swinging his arm around the waitress who was now sitting beside him.

"More like weird and twisted." Dart said with a half frown and smirk.

"Upset that I've got the girl?"

"No, just confused." Dart said, chugging down some more of his drink.

"Come on! It's not like he's that ugly!" The brunet in Balder's arm cried out.

"Yeah really Dart, it's not like it's impossible that I could get a girl!"

"Arg! Never mind!" Dart yelled ruffling his hair frustration as the waitress laughed.

They were all fairly drunk by the time that evening had begun rolling in, amazingly enough Balder had a fairly high tolerance level. Which was something else that surprised Dart. It was around five when they left the bar slightly more sober then they had been when they started drink and headed to Lavits' mother's house to watch the fireworks for the evening from the roof.

Mrs. Slambert opened the oak door and beamed up at the knights. "Oh it's so wonderful that all of you would come down here and join me! I've made more then enough to eat!"

One of the knights groaned slightly and muttered about already having eaten. "Oh you'll be hungry after the fireworks I'm sure!" Was Mrs. Slambert's only reply.

The group managed to head up to the roof with out to many mishaps although most of the men drew saddened faces as they passed on by Lavits' room. Mrs. Slambert had already changed it around a bit for the little boy and his family who lived there with her. Balder jumped up on top of the roof just in time to see the main festivities begin. Already the people crowding other roofs and the streets below was immense. But now as Father Faza walked out onto the balcony of castle the people in the streets grew quite eager to listen to any word. Dart took his seat by Balder and watched with a pair of binoculars.

"Where'd you get those?" Balder asked looking away for a moment.

"Shhh!" Dart said back staring at the castle.

Although they couldn't hear the Father's voice they could clearly see Albert and Emille venturing out of the castle doors waving to the people. Emille's amazing white dress blew about in the wind and Albert in expensive armor of a green color made the white maid stick out even better. Emille's hands reached over for some thing behind her and Dart spotted a dark figure moving in the background. For a moment his heart leapt, worry filled him for the face that was looking out of the black cloak was none other then Alulan. Clearly through the binoculars Dart could see the grin spread across the man's face as he handed Emille the flowers. She then waved them about before her and then with genital throw let them fall to earth where they fell into some expecting person's arms.

The pair waved one last time and the fire works began bursting in the evening sky. People in the streets were cheering loudly and the couple receded from view. Dart turned to Balder who was grinning at Mrs. Slambert as she positively bawled her eyes out on the shoulder of one of the knights.

"I-I din't think I-I'd see this daaay!" She yelled as the drunk knight patted her on the back looking slight bemused.

Dart and Zieg laughed as they clambered back down the ladder. "Sorry Mrs. Slambert we've got to go up for the Ball!" Dart yelled rolling his eyes and the woman waved after them.

The castle was full of people who were running about gathering things up. Albert was standing by with Emille still attached happily on his arm. Meru dashed up the stairs towards them. "Come on! Second floor now!"

Albert laughed and followed the wingly up the steps to the second floor outlook which looked down upon the flooded ballroom. He stared down at the water and raised an eyebrow at Meru who just laughed.

"Pish, no problem for a powerful chick like me!" Meru said striking a pose.

Emille looked worriedly down at the water. "What's she going to do?" She whispered to Albert, who held up a finger to his lips.

Around the edges of the great pool of water people with everything from tables wall decorations waited with excitement. People in overly fluffy ball gowns flooded out of the castle. Shana was running about in a bright white dress looking everywhere for Dart. Dart was walking happily up the walkway to the castle dressed in full armor which he had cleaned that morning. Raizel was standing near the castle walls with Miranda near by. Both of them had at least managed to drag on dresses, although neither were quite as gawky as the one that Shana had dressed in.

Meru suddenly leaped up into the air, hovering there while letting her magic warm up. "Come on people, back AWAY from the BALLROOM!" The people below edged away as the water began to swish around haphazardly. Then slowly it lifted out spreading upwards above the ballroom and above some of the surrounding area. When it finally reached the height at which Meru was floating it thinned out slight and came to rest. The giant pool of hovering water stopped, with only tiny ripples covering it's surface. Meru landed back on the walkway.

"There you go Al! This is your real wedding present, lemme see if I can't get it lit up for you tho!" Meru said with a wave before jumping off the walkway and flying down towards where Miranda was standing looking fairly impressed.

"Oh my SOA!" Emille shouted, "What if it falls?"

"So long as Meru's alive there's nothing to worry about." Albert said patting Emille on the head with a smile.

"Are you.. Sure?"

"Positive, this is set magic. Which is the same type they use in Ulara to keep the barriers up, if functions basically on it's own so the people who work the magic can fall asleep or not pay attention to it and it will remain.... I think."

"Oh... Oh ok, well be better be going dow- What's she doing?!" Emille said pointing at Miranda. Miranda was fully transformed into her normal Dragoon form, and was shooting arrows at the water by what looked like Meru's direction. As the arrows of light hit the water they burst up sending hundreds of tiny lights streaming through the still water. Albert laughed and pulled on Emille's hand and started down the stairway.

Alulan turned as he was passed by Albert and Emille and followed them down. Noish jumping happily behind, "Did you see what Miss Meru did?" The mad asked, "She pulled all the water out of the old ballroom! Amazing what these wingly types can do."

Alulan smiled and nodded, "Really is something."

Further up he saw Dart and Balder heading up the stairs, Balder tilted his head to the side and Alulan shook his when Noish was busy talking to some woman.

"Albert! We watched down from Mrs. Slamberts house. Who'd you pay for the fire works?" Dart asked slipping in on Albert's other side.

"Meru got them in Lohan when she was visiting a while back, did you see the ballroom. I knew she was going to drain the water out but not like that."

"It was spectacular! I'll have to try something like that..."

"Are you drunk? You can't control water or fire... anymore." Albert said raising an eyebrow.

"Heh, sorry your knights decided to take me out on the town." Dart ruffled his hair, "If you see Shana tell her I'm getting cleaned up." Dart said before dashing off at a slightly wobbly pace up the stair. For once at least he didn't give Alulan a glare.

The people were already piling down the stairs to the now water free ballroom, although quite a few still hung outside watching the float water above warily. The vendors and the long snack table also remained outside of the ballroom mostly because no one wanted to carry those down. In the now almost night sky above a few more fireworks lit up the sky. Shana was pacing about the edge of the pool. Albert stopped before descending to speak with her.

"Oh, Albert have you seen Dart?" She asked with a slight bow while really watching some men carry a piano down into the ballroom.

"He's still getting ready," He gave her a slight shrug, "You don't have to try and be so proper around me Shana you know that."

"I think its fun," She said spinning about once. "I haven't worn a dress like this since last time we were in Feltz."

"I'll have to give you one of mine!" Emille piped up, "I've got far to many, especially with all the ones I'm getting as presents."

"Oh really?" Shana asked a smile growing over her face.

"Of course!"

Raizel watched them for moment and then proceed over. He long black dress with a golden ribbon tied around the center was contrasting nicely with the lit up water above. Her normal hair band had been replaced with a golden one which had violet gems placed into it. And while the dresses sleeves were short Raizel was wearing long gloves which passed all the way up into the fabric of the dress. It was almost the opposite of Shana's white dress.

Emille squeaked as Raizel appeared by her side.

"Raizel, you look outstanding in dresses. I can't imagine why you never what to wear one." Albert commented.

"It's stuffy, they wouldn't even let me bring my sword." She pouted.

"Oh it's not that bad," Shana said with another spin.

"True, I could be stuck in that weird getup that Miranda's wearing." Raizel said brushing some hair out of her face. "So why does Meru get away with wearing her skirt?"

Albert pointed up at the floating water which had turned into a slightly golden hue from Miranda's arrows. "Anyway, I really ought to be heading down. I can almost feel Noish buzzing about behind me." And with that the green and golden dressed king headed down the sandy colored stairs to the ballroom.

"He has a good point, I hope Dart doesn't try an avoid me again." Shana said with a sigh.

"Avoid you?" Raizel questioned.

"Ah well when we... Oh never mind, I'm, just going to go looking for him... He was with Balder, so I'll ask him." With that the beautiful ex-white dragoon scampered off towards Balder who was wearing black leather with some newer red armor onto of it.

Raizel sighed and looked across the ballroom to where she saw Miranda almost literally stalking Alulan about. She moved to grab a drink off the table which sat near by and watched with interest.

Alulan who was decked out in black leather with strange sliver symbols running down his arms and upon his shirt was moving about through the crow on the other side. About five feet behind him Miranda was moving about behind him. Everyone and a while she'd slip out of the crowd to try and spot him again. Raizel watched as Alulan walked over to a chair and lifted up a large black cloak with another sliver ensigna on it, and headed back into the crowd. Miranda who was a good five inches shorter had been watching the silver on his back, but now with a different symbol she was thrown off. Alulan left the crowd and carefully snuck over to where Raizel stood. He pretended to be grabbing up one of the little sandwiches which they had.

"Raizel, we'll talk tomorrow after the final celebrations. I'll find you, but for now we're all being followed." And with that he slipped down into the ballroom. Miranda was still pacing about the other side looking for him. Raizel slowly shifted about and headed for over where Shana had just stopped speaking to Balder and was now being lead away by Dart.

"Alulan said he'll find us tomorrow." She stated, "Miranda's been following him about."

"Meru's been following you about, want to dance?" Balder said with a grin.

"Um..."

"Come on, we'll be able to talk better that way." And with that he lead her off into the ballroom.

Alulan left the party only after both Dart and Albert had ventured off to bed. However with Miranda still lurking around behind him he hadn't been able to do more then speak with Kaiser. Luckily Emille's little sister Lisa had offered to dance with him so the night hadn't been completely wasted... But still it had gotten nastily boring near the end.

Inside his room he pulled the letter out of his other set of clothes from earlier that day, he stared at the front again.

_ Albert_

It stated in the strange writing. He flipped it open.

_Dear Albert,_

_I'm afraid that we can not risk another memory wipe so soon. To do that might permanent damage their minds. Although I could add another spell upon Raizel and Balder I do not believe that any spell is powerful enough to encage Alulan's mind properly. I do indeed think that perhaps we would have benefited more from simply locking them away. _

_I have cause for believe that Melbu is currently hiding not far from Lohan. We've also found that Faust has gone missing from his tower. Most likely he is now following orders from Melbu. We shall do our best to track him down._

_Do take care, I would come to your wedding under better circumstances and I hope that only happiness shall come to you now. _

_Would you mind asking Dart about contacting The Divine Dragon again, I know he feels it's unsafe however the dragon would not wish for the man who imprisoned him to win. _

Alulan stared at the letter, this Charlie person at least seemed nice... For all the memory wiping and brainwashing she was doing. He frowned, and pulled off his pair of boots while he attempted to jam the letter up into the hollow part of the chair.

He finished and fell back onto the bed with a bounce. Somewhere down the hallway he could hear someone speaking loudly but he gave it no care as he drifted off to sleep.

A/N: I'm such awful person not updating this enough. v.v I know I should write on it more cause I have a very long way to go on this fic but I'm so lazy and I have so many things I like to do.

BLARG!

I though that as some fun for all of you I'd add in a nice little Quiz at the end each chapter, the first person to review with the correct answers gets to ask me for an art commission! In case you fear what my art my look like here's my DA account free to laugh at my corny castle things.... They're fun to make!

Questions:

1. Who is the wingly who runs the teleported pad at Ulara?

2. How many levels/floors are there in Albert's castle?

That's all, fairly easy. Anyway have fun!


	12. Ponder as you wander through the waterfa...

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_Now ending discreetly, just like a hidden sin, as I go under please tuck me in.  
Make me invisible.   
This hidden explosion calls for a wandering cast with no direction.   
Enter all monsters let us twist another fairy tale._

  
Of greeting and goodbyes. AFI.

"He told you to ride the boat?" Raizel asked startled.

"That's what he said, he told me to follow it along till we reach some basement, the from there we go off to the left and follow it down in the current till we see the water fall. Then we paddle to the water fall and go through it." Balder explained as he pulled the boat closer to the dock so Raizel could manage getting in.

"If were going with the current wont we go off the waterfall?"

"Just come on."

Raizel groaned on about something like male stupidity and sat down firmly in the boat while picking up an oar. Balder pushed off and let the current carry them along till he saw the basement. Sighing and pushing off to the left of it he didn't even bother to look to the side of him. Raizel was shrieking. There was an eerie moment where he realized that they were caught now in a current taking them straight into a wall, and then a wash of cold when the boat and themselves slipped right on through that very wall.

Now on the other side looking back at the wall they realized that it must have been some sort of illusion, and not a wall at all. Raizel's hand was still clamped tightly on Balder's shoulder.

"Heh, sorry..." She said meekly.

"We'd... Better be watching for this waterfall." Balder said to push away the uncomfortable silence which was breaking out.

The little boat floated along in the current till they finally passes by a narrow rock passage way which contained a small waterfall further up it's stretch. Flinging their oars into the water they slowly made their way up towards the waterfall. When finally the boat prow touched the water it glided easily through the little waterfall and into a small wooden cave which rested behind the waterfall.

Alulan was kneeling down pulling their boat in to the area. His hair was amazingly wet, as was the rest of his clothing.

"What'd you do swim?" Balder asked jumping out of the boat.

"Yes." Alulan answered.

"Your mad."

"So are you."

"What was with that wall?" Raizel piped up interrupting the duo.

"Not quite sure, but it's been there for ages. I read about it a while back when I was sorting through Albert's books." Alulan replied. "However after seeing what Meru did I assume that it was done by a wingly."

"Yeah, cool stuff that was." Balder sat down on the wooden floor and looked about the tiny room. "I wasn't able to look about Dart's room at all, but I did see that girl that the knights have been searching for."

"The blond one?" Alulan asked.

"Yeah."

"Miranda's still furious about that girl. I overheard her speaking to Dart about how if she doesn't find the girl soon she'll be staying her till she does." Raizel said.

"Damn." Alulan muttered, leaning up against the wall of the cave.

"Well I managed to nab some stuff out of the library." Raizel fished out some papers from her pocket. "There was a book that Albert looked like he was working on too. I hid that away for a better time when I could retrieve it."

"I managed to get a letter from Albert's room... Here, " Alulan stated as he scraped the piece of paper from his pocket.

_Dear Albert,_

_I'm afraid that we can not risk another memory wipe so soon. To do that might permanent damage their minds. Although I could add another spell upon Raizel and Balder I do not believe that any spell is powerful enough to encage Alulan's mind properly. I do indeed think that perhaps we would have benefited more from simply locking them away. _

_I have cause for believe that Melbu is currently hiding not far from Lohan. We've also found that Faust has gone missing from his tower. Most likely he is now following orders from Melbu. We shall do our best to track him down._

_Do take care, I would come to your wedding under better circumstances and I hope that only happiness shall come to you now. _

_Would you mind asking Dart about contacting The Divine Dragon again, I know he feels it's unsafe however the dragon would not wish for the man who imprisoned him to win. _

"Wow..." Raizel murmured as she finished reading it, and then handed it over to Balder. "What's this '_we would have benefited more from simply locking them away.' _part make you think of Alulan? I'm thinking they wanted to chuck us into prison... Or maybe they meant to lock away our minds?"

"That's along the lines I was thinking. However the only good prison I can think of is Hellena, and that's not exactly what I'd call secure." Alulan said resting a hand against his chin. "Maybe there is one farther north? Somewhere near the Kashua Glacier? I've heard them speaking of a place called Velweb... That's supposed to be further north."

"No, Velweb is the place where the last war with the dragoons took place." Raizel said. "Albert talked about it some in this book... He's only really finished with the preface, but I remember it being mentioned in there."

"Ah... Well then I don't know where they would managed to lock us up."

"Maybe that's why we had our memories wiped..." Balder said sadly as he looked up from the letter. "It just that... Well Dart treats me like I'm his best friend, or even a brother... I don't see how he'd treat me like that if I fought against him."

"Yeah... Shana's really quite nice to me, all of them are. Well except Miranda, she's a bitch to everyone though." Raizel crossed her arms and sighed. "What about this Charle? She seems fairly nice in the tone of her letter, her name also seems familiar."

"I thought so too," Balder said. "It seems very familiar, but somehow I just can't dig up anything more then that. Not even emotion."

"I've heard Albert speaking to Dart, they mentioned her name once. Apparently she's the ruler of some wingly city in the desert. Other then that I don't know anything of her. However this Melbu is much, interesting. Every time I read that letter and read his name I kept thinking of something powerful. Not only that but also of a friendly feeling, and yet hate." Alulan rolled his eyes, "It's all rather muttled."

"I agree, I feel deep respect and hate for him." Raizel said.

"Hate here too, but if the dragoons are hunting him then...?" Balder paused. "I must mean that at some point we had to have been aligned with him. After all the dragoons, and this Charle don't seem very pleased with him."

"Yeah... Well I think there is something I should show all of you... I found it inside Albert's book, it's like a page that's he's planning to write later." She pulled the book back out and opened it to further in the book, where every page was white, and then suddenly a loose one with text appeared. "Here, I'll read it out loud."

_As the body of the God of Destruction was destroyed it gave off a large amount of energy. At first this energy destroyed the thousands of Virage which were flying about the moon, it damaged most of us. We would not have survived had we not all been transformed. As that first wave of energy faded, a second arose. This one was white and traveled far slower then the original. It moved slowly outward from where Melbu had been killed. When it finally reached us we felt is amazing healing effects. It cured every wound upon our bodies, and even healed older wounds. It was only later that day that we discovered that this energy had been absorbed into our bodies. With this new, and replenishing energy Meru was able to teleport us all the way from south of Velweb, to Ulara. After this feat, she was hardly tired. Kongol was the only one who seemed to have not absorbed any of this energy beyond healing. _

"That's all Albert wrote." Raizel said with a sigh. "I can only assume that me and Balder we also present for this event, I don't know about you Alulan since your not a Dragoon. But, if Melbu was there it's a fair bet we all were."

"I agree." Alulan said, he looked at the waterfall pondering for a moment. "We need to keep tabs, or try and contact this blond girl... Raizel you must return the book sometime today. I can guess how badly Albert will freak if it goes missing. Balder can you look for this blond girl in town at that bar?"

"Sure." Balder said, "I'll see if I can't sneak into Dart's room."

"Alright, Emille's sister Lisa seemed to be quite willing to talk to me for some reason. I think I'll try and speak to her again before she leaves."

Raizel nodded and hoped back into the boat. "Well I'm going back, Alulan why don't you just come on the boat?"

"Alright." He said, taking a seat behind her. Balder jumped into the front and the trio glided back down the underground path.

Dart walked back and forth over the carpet on the front steps. He was thinking to himself of what to say to Shana. He was determined to stay and ensure that Melbu wasn't posing any threat to the three of them, but Shana had been so excited to be going home yesterday. He let out a loud groan, and paced along.

"I'm sure Shana will understand." Lisa said from only a few steps up.

"Hun... Oh, your majesty!" Dart said giving her a slight bow.

"There is no need, but I overheard Albert worrying about you and decided to come down here and tell you that I'll be sure to stay as long as I can. That way Shana will at least have someone to talk to, it is the least I can do since you saved my sister." Lisa smiled, gave Dart a slight pat on the shoulder and then continued down the stairs and out the front door.

Dart sighed and sat down upon the stairs.

Everyone was going to be leaving tomorrow, he had been so sure that Shana would be bored out of her mind with no one to talk to. But if Lisa was going to stay that would at least keep her happy... He doubted that either Raizel or Balder would be upset about staying longer. Didn't Miranda say that she was staying till Wink was caught?

_ Just why was I so worked up anyway?_

A/N: Reiji Nako got my last little prize, so in your review think up something for me to draw... Wee, most likely you'll all end up getting one of my horrific prizes by the time this is over. XD I've also done some Lloyd fan art, feel free to poke fun at it yeah! Quiz:

1. How many generations do you go through when you fight the God of Destruction?

2. What is Kongol's last addition called?


	13. Assassination

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_Deep dark is his Majesty's kingdom  
A portent of tomorrow's world  
There shall the liquid give Him power  
The red-eyed unborn lord_. 

  
Devil & The Deep Dark Ocean. Nightwish.

Life at Indels Castle had settled down into a dull hum. Although Albert still walked about like he was high on some drug, and Emille seemed to be surgically attached to his arm.... But forgetting the happy couple all of the dragoons had decided to outstay the other party guests. Dart could be seen strolling through the town with a group of knights from the 3rd knighthood. Shana had taken up following either Raizel or Lisa about, she seemed constantly worried about her home town. Miranda still stalked about the Castle jumping out of rooms into the hallway at odd moments, or climbing out of the castle via a window. Haschel and Kongol had taken up to teaching many of the knights the Rouge Arts in the practice rooms. And Meru was happily wondering around the town and into bars, where she would tells stories about all her great adventures as a dragoon. The trio however were not in such good spirits; while they maintained a happy face around the dragoons, they were constantly on alert for any word of information. And as their time if Bale together was growing short, they seemed to be working extra hard to listen in on the dragoons.

Raizel had been heading out her own door when she heard Miranda and Dart conversing in the hallway only a few feet away. Hoping for some news of some sort, she flattened herself up against the wall and listened intently.

"Charle's had some winglies looking about the moon for Rose's choker, they are starting to worry that she might have hidden it somewhere before..."

"I know, but she'd have only had four days before she showed up in Ulara. Can't they sense stuff like that?" Dart queried Miranda.

"I thought they could too, I think I'll ask Albert to include that in his letter." Miranda stated.

"You'd think with all the power they have now it wouldn't be too hard to track something like that down." Dart said, a frown forming on his face.

"We could always ask Meru about it..." She paused, "Come on we can talk about it later with Albert."

_Rose? I wonder who this is? And a choker? I've never pictured any of them as fashion conscious..._ She shook her head listened again to the sound of foot steppes. They faded away and Raizel hurried down to breakfast after them.

Alulan found himself alone once again in the main thrown room. Albert had taken to his room with Dart, Miranda and Meru in something which Alulan referred to as "The Dragoonly Conference." It was a little bothering to know that they were probably over they right now talking about himself and what had happened. And if he could only sneak over to the door and open it....

But alas, the moment the door opened the Dragoon spirits would flash and their owners would come prancing out onto the balcony to see who was there. Which was something Alulan had found out by accident about three days before. The strange thing was that other dragoons could enter with out setting off the warning sensors in the Spirits, but whether or not Raizel and Balder could enter Alulan had yet to determine. It was this that made him loath that door with all his heart. He wished that maybe the door would just disappear and leave, but it didn't seem very inclined to listen. It was all that stood between him and all this questions. Two inches of wood, a platform and another thin aspen door that he had no trouble hearing through, were all that stood in his way.

And yes, right about now he's might was set so forcefully on the damnation of that door that he almost missed the Soldier who was creeping across the floor towards him.

A flash of sunlight was what ended up alerting him to the man's presence. "Yes?" he asked slightly bitter at the interruption to his angsty thoughts.

"I've come with a message to King Albert, I must speak to him." The knight answered standing at attention.

Alulan's eyes glazed over the man, he had to have come from some outpost like Hoax for Alulan had never seen him before. The man had grey eyes and wore green under his armor the spear which rested in his hands was metallic all the way through with some small but simple decoration along the handle. For a moment he wondered why the man seemed to be perfectly clean, but then again he had been lusting after opening that door all day.

He walked over and opened the door, instantly Dart, and Miranda opened the other. "There is a messenger here for Albert." Alulan stated, surprised at just how fast they had acted.

"Yeah... Al, there is someone here for you." Dart called back, before walking further out on the platform, "Excuse me." He stated firmly pushing past Alulan, Miranda moving right out behind him giving a distasteful look to Alulan.

Meru was next out, but she just jumped over the side of the platform and dropped to the ground below. Stopping short when her wings appeared. Alulan wondered if she got some sort of kick making people think she was jumping to her death. He turned around knowing Albert would be taking a little while.

"He'll be out in a moment." Alulan said watching the overly clean knight. "What is your name?"

The knight stiffened and turned to him, "Melb-burne." The man said with a slight glare, or perhaps it was worry that flashed in his eyes.

_I can't be that frightening can I?_

His ears perked up to listen as Kaiser's clanking footsteps came pounding up the stairs, Albert opened the door from his room and walked out.

"What is it." He asked with a friendly manor.

"My lord, here is the message from The Great Commander." The man walked over holding his spear next to him and pulled out a small slip of paper from his pocket. Kaiser burst up the stairs and yelled something out, his voice strangled with worry. The knight jumped the last step and thrust his spear forward.

Alulan had felt something was off since he had asked for the man's name, but somehow the horrible visage which now presented itself was not what he had expected. The knight stood just on the other side of Albert, his hole body seeming to be pushing something forward as if driven by a great rage.

Alulan's mind just couldn't comprehend what that something could be.

A spear ripped through the back of Albert's cloak, clean with only the faintest trace of blood. Alulan's mind was slowly piecing the puzzle out, shock had struck him dumb, but now his mind called for action. Albert's hands were reaching out and gripping the man's shoulder's. He was collapsing, the man was smiling.

Alulan never remembered being taught how to fight, but something was defiantly kicking in. And while Kaiser stood on the other side of the room gawking at the vision of his own King being strung through. Alulan was leaping through the air driving at the Knight who had just impaled his King. His hands grabbed the man's upper arm and in one swift turn he drove the man face first into the ground. Kaiser was moving again, diving at the man on the floor and smashing his fist into the side of the man's head. Alulan could have sworn he saw the eyes flicker from blue to green. But the adrenalin in his body was pumping far to fast for him to be sure of anything.

Albert let out a weak gasp behind them, he had fallen to his knees. His hands were weakly placed around the area in which the spear had penetrated.

"Oh god, Albert..." Alulan felt himself say.

"Alulan go get Miranda!" Kaiser said jumping over to the king who's shoulders were heaving up and down with something like anxiety and pain. The knight carefully placed his hands upon the King's shoulders and spoke to him, "Don't worry Al... You'll be ok, just stay with me..." However as strong as those words might have been they didn't not hide the worry on the war torn face.

Alulan's feet barely found the ground quick enough, he was dashing down the stairs and past maids who knew nothing of their King's horrible predicament. His feet slipped and glided as he rushed to turn around the steps. He rounded them dashed down the steps to where Miranda stood speaking lightly with a maid.

"Miranda!" He called his hand groping to find hers.

"What the hell do you think your doing!?" She yelled shocked and frightened by his bewildering behavior.

"Albert! He's been attacked, common don't stand there like gawking idiot. NOW!" With more force then he knew he had he uprooted the dragoon from her spot and practically dragged her up the steps. Below him he heard Dart yell out.

"The hell!?" Balder who had been standing near him yelled, the pair went racing up the steps after the illusive sliver haired man.

Miranda had stopped trying to free her self from Alulan's grasp, and was now concentrating on not going flying into one of the banisters as they came rounding up the second pair of stairs. The third passed so quickly Alulan wondered if he had really gone up them.

Miranda let go a screech when she saw Albert kneeling on the floor, there was blood leaking all down his clothes and while it had yet to form a pool at his knees it had dyed all his clothing from the waist down.

Alulan jumped when Dart came slamming up the stairs right into him, "What the HELL do you think your doing you-" Dart's voice stopped short in his throat as he looked at Albert who kneeled on the ground, with Miranda kneeling beside him. "Al!" Dart yelled hurrying over. Alulan followed.

Albert's face was turned down, looking at the spear stick out from his stomach. His teeth were clenched, and his face was screwed up with pain. He let out a shuttered gasp for air, and murmured something to Miranda. The light of the healing dragoon formed around her body and wings like glass appeared from her back.

"Dart, help me get this out of him **now**."

"B-but, Miranda!?" Dart said his face turning white.

"NOW DART! And pull it out from the back, I don't want to risk it cutting him again!" She ordered. "I can stop the blood only once it's OUT!"

Dart nodded dumbly, and went around behind Albert, crouching as he wrapped his hands around the metallic spear head. Alulan found his hand being suddenly crushed inside of Albert's own. Dart pulled back, running the rest of the five feet of the spear's poll through Albert's body and back out the other side. Albert crippled forward as the last of it came out, Miranda's hand shoved Alulan away as she suddenly shot a arrow at the wooden sky above. It sparkled there, and then with a great force fell back down onto Albert's body which was illuminated with light. As the light faded Albert remained prone, and Dart stood there shaking with the bloody spear in hand.

"Help me take him to his room," Miranda said quietly, "I think, I think he'll be alright with time."

Dart nodded and pushed Albert's body upright. The wound which had traveled straight through the King was no longer bleeding as a strange flimsy sort of skin covered it completely. You could just barely see through it to the dark red masses of blood and tissue below.

Balder bent down and grabbed around Albert's shoulders, a few steps away Miranda was detransforming. Dart lifted up Albert's legs and they passed through the open door onto the balcony. Miranda followed deafly behind, and she was followed by Kaiser who stumbled as he took his first steps. Alulan stood there feeling dangerously apart, near his feet the knight lay. Anger overflowed him for not recognizing the danger.

_Damnit! _

He felt himself give a hearty kick to the nearest object, which just happened to be the knight.

Balder walked back out of the room looking faintly edgy. "Dart says he wants this guy in bars.... I didn't know you could heal a person up like that, he's not bleeding or anything." The was something like amusement on Balder's face, which was actually slightly disturbing.

"Yeah..." Alulan replied, reaching down and pulling up one of the man's arms. Balder took the other and they began to drag/carry the man down stairs.

Noish came walking up the stairs, "Alulan do you know why all those dragoons came run-.... What happened to that poor man!?"

"Albert was attacked by him, he must be some sort of assassin..." Alulan paused.

"Dear Soa! How is his Majesty!?"

"The guy's alright, Miranda patched him up so he isn't bleeding anymore." Balder replied. "You should probably go up there."

"Yes, yes!" Noish sprinted off up the steps with a speed that Alulan didn't know the old man had. Near by the maids had stopped and were chattering, "Is this true?" "How can it be?" "How could anyone take down a dragoon?" "Did he not have guards?"

The pair continued on down the steps towards the base level and around to the side of the complex where a few small cells were located. Alulan and Balder tossed the man haphazardly into the cell.

"The pair of you!" Alulan announced to some of the knights. "I want a constant watch over this man, he's not a knight he's an assassin who just attacked King Albert. There is to be two of you, and you are not to speak or listen to what this man says!"

The guards look between each other, and then back at Alulan and Balder.

"Don't worry Albert's gonna be okay, Miranda fixed him up." Balder said comforting the knights. "I'll stay here and watch this guy too, Alulan go up and look after your King."

Alulan nodded a thanks to Balder and headed back up the steps. Emille and her sister came rushing past him. "Alulan!? T-they said Albert was attacked!" Lisa pleaded.

"Yes... He was come on, lets go see him." He said leading the pair of women up the stairs towards Albert's room.

Emille started crying as soon as she walked into the room. Dart was standing beside Miranda looking over him, Miranda was holding out her Spirit over Albert's wound. Emille knelt down next to her, her hand firmly plastered over her mouth. Tears were creeping down over her face and through the rivulets in her hand. Haschel was also in the room, his face plastered with worry. The deeply wrinkled face was far more accented, and the dark skin created even darker shadows making it look as though he had aged into stone.

Alulan found himself being pushed to the side as Meru came pounding into the room. She stared visibly at the seen, her bright eyes budging and her hands scrunching up in furry. "WHERE WERE YOU!?" She screamed turning on Alulan. Her red eyes piercing him and accusing him. "WHAT ABOUT YOU!?" She yelled at Kaiser, swinging her arms down.

"Meru..." Dart spoke, "There was nothing that could have prevented this. The man was dressed as a knight who would have known?"

She softened slightly and looked back around the room, "Is Al gonna be alright?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. Why don't you go tell the others." Dart responded disheartened.

Meru's mouth twitched, she gazed back over at Albert and then silently stormed from the room.

The room fell silent as she left, no one else entered the room for sometime. Miranda stood and looked around. "It didn't hit anything that can't be repaired. He'll need time and lots of rest but his own body will heal him. You can let go of that now Dart." She said as she noticed that the spear was still firmly inside his grip. He looked at and hurriedly placed it leaning against the wall as if he were a child who had been caught with something he had been forbidden.

Miranda then let her shoulders sag and walked out of the room. Dart let out a sigh and pulled a chair over from the side of the room. "Here Emille..." He said helping her into the seat. Dart stepped back, and then turned from the room, Haschel followed him. Looking at Kaiser and Alulan with something like hate.

Emille sat hunched in sadness, Lisa walked over to Emille and whispered something quietly in her ear. The queen nodded, and Lisa walked from the room.

Alulan's eyes floated over to Kaiser, who looked back. The pair of them shared a silent nod and walked out onto the balcony where they stood.

"I should have come faster, one of the knights said that he had seen the man grabbing some armor and a spear from in the armory.... It's just I expected that some how you or Albert would figure it out quicker then you did." Kaiser whispered in a hushed and sorrowed sound.

"I could feel something was wrong about him... I should have stayed closer to Albert, not just hung back."

"It's not your fault, you couldn't have known."

_But I did feel something was wrong... I know I should trust instincts like those, so why didn't I? _

Alulan let out a regretful sigh and glanced across wide fields and prairie stretching to the mountains. They were distant and calm, and looked like great blue towers.

Clouds moved endlessly across the sky heading towards the mountains as if drawn by a unknown force. Birds chirped happily upon the branches of the aspen trees which lingered near a golden shade in the bright sun. The street venders were packing up their sales and hanging notices on the fames. Meru was strolling back and forth across a bridge. Further away at the entrance a pair of merchants had stopped on their way out of town. They were speaking to a Knight, and he was handing them a few pieces of paper. The word of Albert's assassination attempt had spread quickly.

Kaiser felt a cold wind sweep across the side of his face. Fall was fast approaching, and a dark winter waited not long after.

_A particularly dark winter..._ The knight turned back inside, finding no comfort or joy in the image of the city below. Alulan stayed, feeling at peace so high above the troubles and complications which had arose.

....

A/N: I've been wanting to just write some weird descriptive crap at the end of a chapter for a while. But I suck at descriptions, so that there took me a good half an hour to get. .

Well anyway, I'm sorry to all Jade lovers for impaling Albert, but for the sake of the plot it must be done. Just try to refrain from eating me. I think since you all sucked so badly at the last quiz, I shall mock the lot of you.

But in any case I'm going to be gone on Vaction from the 17th to the 23rd, so I'm not going to have any time to crack out nifty fan art. Much apologies, the quiz shall return next chapter. .


	14. Pasted between the wink

**Bringing of the Shadows**

_If I were your appendages  
I'd hold open your eyes  
So you would see  
That all of us are heaven sent_  
Megalomaniac. Incubus.

After Emille fell asleep Dart had spoken, it was his decision to have someone keep watch on Albert incase of further attack. In the end, after some slight arguing Dart and Alulan had ended up taking the first watch Kaiser was to watch with Miranda after them, then Meru and so forth.

A thought of those green changing eyes had come to Alulan as he sat in the unnerving silence with Dart. He wondered if he's strange sighting would mean anything to the grumpy Dragoon. In the end Alulan's hope to prove loyal to Albert was washed out by the idea that Dart had, and still was, the one who had participated in wiping away Alulan's memories.

_If I had half the heart to care now I'd be beating this guy over the head for answers about why he wiped our memories... Or at least I'd be arguing my point to him. _

Alulan leaned back in his chair feeling unruffled around the seemingly superior Divine Dragoon. The guy defiantly had that creepy battle worn and omnipotent feel. Like he was some how above the average human. It wasn't that he had any scars upon his face that gave a sense of a trained warrior like Kaiser had, nor was he blond hair or blue eyes in the least threaten.

But there was defiantly something which Alulan was feeling, like a shadow which was stalking around behind the dragoon. Almost as if the divine dragon was now close to the surface, and was imbedding some sort of mechanical feel on the dragoon.

And then Dart let out a half hearted sigh and crossed his arms over his chest. And in this moment whatever eerie superior being which had been lurking around the dragoon was gone.

_Now that's strange.... One moment the guy looks like he's about ready to blast away the universe and become the next god of destruction, then poof! Nice guy mourning over his beaten up buddy. _

_That or I'm going insane and seeing crap._

Alulan rolled the last thought over in his mind, insanity wasn't something he really wanted to experience.

Dart who was now done brooding on his side of the room had his mind set in firm action. Whoever it was that had attacked Albert was going to get a little visit from him once he was done watching Albert. He was positive that after they had gotten the truth out of the man he'd have to be killed or rather executed.. Most likely this person wasn't in conspiroration with Melbu, since Kaiser and Alulan were able to take the man out all on their own. Still, no matter who or what this person was he needed to be dealt with, and it wasn't something which Dart particularly looked forward too.

Albert was lying softly on the bed across from the chairs of Dart and Alulan, he seemed to be doing fairly well for a person who had been stabbed through. Some of the color was already returning to his face, which had become pale with the blood he lost. Miranda's quick action had ensured that at the very least the wound would not become infected. While it was also save to say that the weapon had not been poisoned. It was still a little harder to say how long it would take Albert to recover. Miranda had said that before the moon had feel Albert would have needed a month at least, but now with their healing abilities all extended and improved.... Who could say how quickly Albert would be back?

Then there was the matter of the flowers. It was a nice gesture from the towns people to their new Queen, but Dart thought the wreaths of flowers were overbearing and stupid. Sure Shana had always loved to look upon the wreaths, however they had never been a favorite of Dart's. And he greatly doubted that a man who wasn't even awake would appreciate smelly things.

The candle on the other side of the room slowly burnt away, and just as it came to it's end Alulan picked up another and lit it before the spark could disappear. Kaiser's clanking could be heard from across the walk way, and then a quite knock on the door. Dart opened it and looked out at Miranda who stood there, "I'm going down to check on the prisoner." He stated.

Miranda gave him a nod and Kaiser looked over at Alulan. "He knows where the guy is." The man's voice was gruff and nervous. And he looked down as he walked into the room.

Dart gave the man something of an annoyed look and headed out the door, Alulan followed quickly behind.

The pair headed down the stairs and finally into the basement. A strange smell drifted past Alulan's nose, he looked over at Dart who was drawling his sword. Dart dashed forward, Alulan hesitated slight but then came walking into the room where the cell was.

The two guards he had told to stand guard were laying there on the ground. The necks where snapped and with their eyes still open it made Alulan feel as though they were still alive. He backed away and headed over towards the small cell. The reason for the smell became apparent. The bars had been melted away by some sort of acidic magic and now a small trace of smoke still rose off of them.

Dart's body snapped around and looked at Alulan, his face was grim. And his eyes seemed to penetrate. Alulan forced himself to hold the glaze without flinching.

And then Dart stalked back up the steps and out of sight.

_It's not my fault the guy could blast through iron.... You jackass. _

Emille awoke to a different room, different sheets, and a different feeling. She felt as though she might throw up her entire insides.

Although why she felt like this took her a moment to figure out. And while she puzzled over the feeling Raizel entered the room holding a pair of mugs, while Shana entered behind her holding her own.

"Good morning." Shana said, attempting to be cheerful, but seeing the look on Emille's face led her to believe that nothing would be cheering up the wife of Albert.

"Don't be too upset, Miranda knows he'll be alright."

"We ordered breakfast in bed, and I think your sister's coming up too."

Emille nodded dumbly as the dragoon and ex-dragoon continued to chatter on to her. She remembered now why she had that feeling in her gut.

"So he'll be okay?" She asked again, wanting reassurance.

"Of course! Al may be a King but he's made of tougher stuff then most of us!" Shana said a little too enthusiastically, spilling some of her tea out the side of her cup.

"Gees Shana, your acting like Meru." Raizel said with a sip of her own tea. "Your sister said you liked it with sugar, hope it isn't too much." She said as she passed over the other mug.

"Thank you, and yes I do." Emille blew off the stop sending the steam flying away and then took a cautious sip. "Peach?"

"Yep." Shana responded. "They had maple and raspberry too, but I thought you'd like this more."

Emille smiled and nodded. She took another sip feeling much better now that there were people around her who seemed completely unworried by the attack.

Balder stared out at the slightly yellowed leaves in the town below. He had to admit that the view from Albert's room was beautiful. But that didn't change the fact that heights scared the hell out of him.

_Odd thing for a dragoon._

He turned around and looked over at Alulan, the guy was sleeping. How someone could manage to sleep at a time like this was beyond him.

_And if Albert's assassin comes back I'll need Alulan's help, what the hell is the guy thinking?_

"Alulan." Balder said giving the guy a nudge with his foot.

"What?" The red eyes snapped open.

Balder raised an eyebrow, "Your awake?"

"You don't honestly think I'd fall asleep on my watch do you?"

"Well..."

"I was just resting my eyes."

"Alright." Balder went back to pacing across the room.

"Poor Albert's not going to have a rug left, first Dart then you, I'm positive Kaiser was doing it too." Alulan said smugly closing his eyes.

"Oh shut up, I'm thinking."

"So am I."

"Yeah, what about."

"That guy, the assassin, when I punched him his eyes changed color."

"You don't say? Sure it wasn't the lighting?" Balder plopped back down into his seat.

"Positive, he was faced away from the sun, there wasn't anything green in the room."

"Green?" Balder looked over at the silver hair guy a bit more attentively.

"Yeah, his eye's flashed green, bright green at that." Alulan's eyes opened, and he looked over at Balder. "Not just that but when Dart and I were down looking at the cell...." He shut up and looked over at the door.

Balder turned his head over, and looked.

"Ah well, I felt something similar about the guy at any rate."

"Most likely someone we knew then." Balder flicked his feet up on the edge of Albert bed.

"Would you mind? The guy's incapacitated, and I'm sure he doesn't want your grubby boots on his bed."

"Grubby?! ARGG! What's with you castle people, I had these things cleaned out yesterday!"

Alulan rolled his eyes and faced away.

**THUNK**

Both their heads snapped around at the sound, something had just knocked up against the planks of wood on the bridge outside. Alulan leaned over in his chair, and whispered. "You get out your sword, I'll open the door." He ordered. Balder pressed his hand over the opening on his sheath and slowly started to slip it out, Alulan crept on his silent feet over to the door. Then in one swift motion he pulled it open.

A blond haired woman in a maid's outfit came tumbling in through the door, hitting then floor and then jumping up only to find that Balder's sword was pressed at her chest and Alulan had closed the door behind her.

"I-I..."

"Hey your the girl Miranda's been bitching about!" Balder said with a laugh.

"Uh...."

"Do you know us?" Alulan said still leaning against the door.

"Um well...." Her face hurriedly looked about the room spotting Albert she covered her mouth. "Oh Soa!"

"HELLO!" Balder said at the top of his lungs, "Were kind of looking for answers here, now how about telling us who you are for starters."

She stared at him. "Yeah... Well." She looked back at Alulan and then back at Balder. "This is so strange..."

"Well if your not going to speak I'm sure Miranda would love to see you..." Alulan threatened lightly.

"Ah! No, no please. My name's Wink, I'm one of her sisters... I followed her down here for the wedding."

"That doesn't exactly explain why you've been sneaking around as a maid." Balder said letting his sword drop.

"Well... She wouldn't let me come here because of the fact that Ll- Well someone is here who she doesn't want me to see."

"And who is this?" Alulan asked.

"Well... Um... you... It because of the memory wipe that I wanted to come but-"

"Wait! You know me form before I lost my memories?"

"Y-yeah... Listen, I should really be going, I shouldn't say anything..." She tried her best to get past Alulan to the door, but he caught her up and shoved her into a chair.

"Why shouldn't you say anything?" He asked.

"It has to do with... Melbu finding you I think."

"Hey that's the guy-."

"Please I really shouldn't be saying anything, it for your own good that you've forgotten."

_My own good that I lost all my memories? How the hell is that supposed to work? And what's with her she looks like hers about to keel over and die of fright._

"Listen.... Wink, we don't even know are real names, we don't know why the Dragoons have been running around and keeping things from us, or why our memories were taken. It would be greatly appreciated if you could tell us something." Balder said, pulling off an amazing puppy dog face.

"Soa... This is so strange... Um... If I tell you your names will you let me go?" She asked.

"That's fine with me." Balder said looking over at Alulan.

"Yeah, alright."

"And PLEASE don't tell my sister I told you, she'd try and kill me."

"Wouldn't dream of it." They responded together.

"Alright, Your Lloyd and he's Zieg... I don't know your last names, but I think yours is Feld."

"Feld?"

"That's odd."

"So let me go now?" She begged.

"Uh... Yeah, be careful will you." Alulan said letting go of her arm and allowing her to open the door.

She hurried out and Alulan shut the door behind her and then looked over at Balder. "Isn't Feld Dart's last name?"

"Yeah it is, maybe where related."

"Well you both have the blond hero gene if you are."

"What's a gene?"

"Never mind."

The pair sat back down in their seats and watched Albert's slow breathing.

"Raizel is going to kill me!" Balder exclaimed all at once."

"Why?"

"We didn't ask the girl about her name!"

"Oh...."

.

A/N: Changed some of the orginal plot with this chapter, it made me feel rebelious!

I'm pissed off at for deleteing not only Kuja's Kooking Show, but also for deleting Broke and Demon Squirrels. . AHHHHH! REVENGE SHALL BE MINE!

I liked doing the part with Emille, I want to use her more in the story, but there really isn't a place for her. Oh well.


End file.
